
Class 
Book. 



BEQUEST OF 
ALBERT ADSIT CLEMONS 
(Not available for exchange) 







^~' 




LOVER AND HUSBAND 












BY 

Frederic Masson 












TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
J. M. HOWELL 












1 '•')'. ' ' ' 

Zbc Merner Company 

NEW YORK AKPON. T H:C^ CHICAGO 











^ 



.0 



k 




>^ 



Copyright i8 



THE MERRIAM COMPANY 



Copyright 1899 



THE WERNER COMPANY 



Napoleon 



Bequest 

AJfe©rt Adsit Olemons 

Aug. 24, 1938 

(Hot available for exchange) 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Youth 5 

II. Thoughts of Marriage 19 

III. Josephine de Beauharnais 32 

IV. Citizeness Bonaparte 45 

V. Madame Foures 61 

VI. Reconciliation 74 

VII. La Grassini 87 

VIII. Foothght Beauties - 101 

IX. Readers 116 

X. Josephine's Coronation 131 

XI. Madame * * * * 144 

XII. Stephanie de Beauharnais 157 

XIII. Eleonore 171 

XIV. Hortense 181 

XV. Madame Walewska 192 

XVI. The Divorce 237 

XVII. Marie-Louise 252 

XVIIL Elba 280 

XIX. The Hundred Days 298 

XX. Summary 810 





MPOLEOl^, LOYEK AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

YOUTH. 

" Paeis, Thursday, 22d, 1787, 

" Hotel de Cherbourg, 

" Eue du Foirr-Saint-Honorg. 

" After Ir^aving the Opera I wandered about in 
the garden of the Palais-Royal. Strongly impressed 
by the scenes which I had just witnessed, my mind 
in ebullition, exhilarated by the music, I was at 
first insensible of the cold ; but, as the scenes which 
I had beheld faded, I became conscious of the wintry 
air and turned to seek shelter under the colonnade. 
I was upon the threshold of the iron gates when my 
glance fell upon a woman, and I stopped to look at 
her. The hour, her extreme youth, and general 
appearance left no doubt as to her social status, yet 
she looked modest, and when she stopped and con- 
fronted me it was not boldly but in a manner per- 



6 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

f ectly in accord with her appearance. Her diffidence 
encouraged me and I spoke to her ; I, who have 
always been so impressed with the odiousness of 
such a calling as hers, have always shunned such 
women and considered myself contaminated by so 
much as a look from one of her class, now voluntarily 
addressed one ; but this girl's pale face, delicate 
appearance, and sweet voice effaced all my old prej- 
udices, and I said to myself : ^ Here is a person 
whom it would be wise to study, as I desire to know 
something of this class of women.' 

" 'You look cold,' I said to her. 'How can you 
wander about on such a chilly night ? ' 

"'The cold exhilarates me, and then — it is my 
life ; I must seek acquaintances.' 

" The indifferent and business-like tone of her an- 
swer pleased me, and I walked on beside her. ' You 
look delicate,' I said. 'I don't understand how you 
can endure such a life as yours must be.' 

' ' ' Dame ! I must do something. I know no other 
way of earning a livelihood and I don't wish to 
starve ! ' 

" ' But could you not find some other occupation 
— something less wearing physically ? ' I asked. 

" ' Not now, it is too late.' 

"I was delighted with her frankness, never hav- 
ing elicited such replies in my previous experiences. 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 7 

* You must come from the North,' I said, * since you 
do not mind the cold.' 

" 'Yes, I come from Nantes, in Brittany.' 

" ' I know that part of the country well. Made- 
moiselle, I wish you would tell me the story of your 
downfall.' 

" ' It was an officer, like yourself, who caused it.' 

" ' Do you regret it ? ' 

*"I do indeed ! ' she answered, in a voice whose 
depth of feeling surprised me. ' I assure you I do ; 
my sister is happily settled, and you cannot imagine 
how I -v^ish that I too had a home.' 

" ' How did you happen to come to Paris ? ' 

" 'I was abandoned by the officer who seduced me 
and obliged to flee from my mother's anger ; having 
made the acquaintance of another officer I accom- 
panied him to Paris ; then, he too left me, and a 
third, with whom I have lived for three years, suc- 
ceeded him ; although a Frenchman he was called 
by business to London and is still there, so I am 
obliged to shift for myself. Let us go to your 
rooms.' 

'"Why should we go there?" 

" ' Don't be a silly ! We will warm ourselves 
and then — perhaps you will be glad to have me 
there.' 

"I was far from scrupulous and had piqued her 



8 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

only that she should not run away from the sermon 
I was mentally preparing, and the modesty I in- 
tended to parade — before proving to her that it was 
a virtue I did not possess." 

At the time when this was written Bonaparte 
was aged eighteen years and three months, having 
been born on the 15th of August, 1T69. We have 
the right to suppose that this was the first woman 
with whom he had any connection, and reviewing 
rapidly the history of his youth we shall find suffi- 
cient reasons to confirm this opinion. Napoleon 
himself made a note, with dates, of such love-affairs 
as left an impression upon his memory ; those which 
I have been able to investigate I have found to be 
absolutely correct. 

He left Ajaccio for France on the 15th of Decem- 
ber, 1778, when he was but nine and a half years of 
age. The feminine memories which he carried with 
him from his island were those of his nurse, Camilla 
Carbone, who was the widow Ilari, and of a little 
schoolmate, "La Giacominetta," of whom he often 
spoke in the sad days at Saint Helena. Later in life 
he showered benefits upon his nurse, her daughter, 
Mme. Tavera, and her granddaughter, Mme. Poli, 
whom he had himself christened Faustina ; he 
was unable to do anything for his foster-brother, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 9 

Ignatio Ilari, because when very young Ilari had 
espoused the cause of the Enghsh party and enlisted 
in the Enghsh navy. 

Of the nurses who had charge of Napoleon's in- 
fancy and childhood one, Minana Saveria, remained 
until her death with Mme. Bonaparte ; the other, 
Mammuccia Caterina, died before the Empire was 
established, as did also little Giacominetta, for whose 
sake, when a lad, Bonaparte had borne much teasing. 

At the college of Autun, where he was a pupil 
from the 1st of January to the 12th of May, 1779 ; 
at the college of Brienne, where he was from May, 
1779, to October 14:th, 1784, at the military school in 
Paris where he spent the year from October 22d, 

1784, to October 30th, 1785, no woman entered his life. 
Even admitting the statement advanced by Mme. 
D'Abrantes that, contrary to the strict rules of the 
Ecole Militaire, Bonaparte, under the pretext of a 
sprain, spent eight days in the apartment of M. 
Permon, No. 5 Place Conti, I see no reason to change 
my belief, for at that time he was but a stripling of 
sixteen. 

Napoleon went to Valence on the 30th of October, 

1785, and left that place to pass his vacation in Cor- 
sica on the 16th of September, 1786, after a sojourn 
of less than a year ; he did not return from the 
island until the 12th of September, 1787, and it was 



10 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

then that he made his journey to the capital; there- 
fore an adventure, prior to that of the 22d of 
November, 1787, could hardly have taken place be- 
tween his leaving the Ecole Militaire and his return 
to Paris. 

He did not engage in any gallantries while in Cor- 
sica, nor yet in Valence ; indeed, during his sojourn 
in the latter place he appeared to be timid, rather 
melancholy, absorbed in his studies and desirous only 
of standing well in his classes and being well re- 
ceived socially. He had carried to Valence a letter 
of introduction to Mgr. de Tardivon, Abbe de Saint- 
Euff, from the Marbeufs, and to this ecclesiastical 
dignitary, who, crossed and mitred, gave tone to 
the town, he owed his entree into the best houses of 
the city, to Mme, Gregoire du Colombier's, Mme. 
Lauberie de Saint Germain's and Mme. de Lau- 
rencin's. 

These ladies, particularly the latter two, held the 
best positions in the province, belonged to the lesser 
nobility and lived handsomely. They were preju- 
diced against the lives of the officers whom they 
admitted to their houses, and never permitted any 
intimacy between their daughters and young men 
whose conduct they did not consider irreproach- 
able. 

Bonaparte may have entertained some vague 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBANR 11 

ideas of marriage with Caroline du Colombier, who 
was permitted by her mother rather more hberty 
than other girls enjoyed. He was barely seventeen 
at that time, and she was considerably his senior ; if 
he admired her, the attentions which he paid her 
were chaste, deferential and boyish : a la Eousseau. 
It was not long, however, before Mile, du Colombier 
married an officer, M. Garempel de Bressieux, and 
left Valence and went to live in an old chateau in 
the country. 

Nearly twenty years later, when Napoleon was in 
camp at Boulogne, he received a letter from her 
recommending her brother to his notice, and al- 
though he had not seen the object of his boyish ad- 
miration since her marriage, he answered by return 
of post, assuring her that he would seize the first 
occasion to be useful to M. du Colombier and 
saying: 

'' The memory of your mother and yourself has 
always been dear to me. I see by your letter that 
you live near Lyons, and I must reproach you for 
not calling while I was there, as it would have given 
me great pleasure to have seen you." 

This advice was not lost, and when, on April 12th, 
1806, Napoleon passed through Lyons on his way 
to the coronation at Milan, Mme. de Bressieux was 
among the first to request an interview. She was 



12 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

terribly changed, aged, and no longer the pretty 
Caroline of bygone days, nevertheless she obtained 
all she asked for : the erasure of certain names on 
the list of emigres, a position for her husband, and 
a lieutenancy for her brother. On New Year's day 
of 1807 Mme, de Bressieux recalled herself to the 
Emperor's memory by a letter asking for news of his 
health. Napoleon responded promptly, and in 1808 
he made her lady-in-waiting upon Madame Mere, 
called her husband to preside over the electoral 
college of Isiere, and in 1810 created him a baron of 
the Empire. 

Such was the grateful memory Napoleon cherished 
for all who had been kind to him in his youth ; 
there were none whose fortunes he did not assure, 
as there were none whom he forgot to mention 
during his captivity ; women, if possible, received 
the greater share of his gratitude, and even when 
he had reason to feel some bitterness towards them 
it was enough that they should once have shown 
him kindness. Thus Mile, de Lauberie de Saint- 
Germain, like Mile, du Colombier, had preferred 
another to him and married her cousin, M. Bachas- 
son de Montalivet ; but Napoleon harbored no re- 
sentment, and it is well known that he made M. 
de Montalivet's fortune, creating him successively 
prefet de la Manche and of Seine-et-Oise, director 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 13 

general for bridges and public roads, minister of 
the Interior and count of the Empire with an en- 
dowment of eighty thousand francs. Mme. de 
Montalivet, of whom he once said, "Of old I loved 
both her virtues and her beauty," he named a lady 
of the Empress's household in 1806. 

Mme. de Montalivet, however, did not accept this 
honor unconditionally, saying to the Emperor : 
"Your Majesty knows my belief regarding a 
woman's duty in this world ; the favor which you 
have had the goodness to accord me, and which 
many will envy, would seem to me a misfortune if 
it prevented me from attending my husband when 
he has the gout, or nursing my children when Prov- 
idence gives me any." 

The Emperor at first frowned at Mme. de Monta- 
livet's frankness, but after a moment said graciously : 
" Ah, madame, you wish to dictate terms ; I am nn- 
accustomed to that, but on this occasion I submit. 
Accept the position, and all shall be so arranged that 
your duties as wife and mother shall not be inter- 
fered with." 

Mme. de Montalivet's position remained a nominal 
one, but that did not prevent Napoleon from showing 
her particular attention ; he was fond of the whole 
family and said of them : *'The family integrity is 
indubitable; it is composed of lovable people and 



14 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

I believe firmly in the disinterestedness of their 
affection. " 

Such were the recollections which Napoleon had 
of Valence. They were dear to his heart, and of a 
kind which those young girls might well be proud 
of inspiring. He had no other intimacies that we 
know of, and in his private journal no others are 
mentioned ; like Hippolite, he appears to have been 
more in love with glory in those days, than with 
women ; in confirmation of this witness this extract 
from a letter written at that time : 

"If I had to compare the days of Sparta and 
Rome with our modern times I would say here 
reigns love, there reigned love of country. Judging 
by the opposite effects which these passions produce 
one seems authorized in believing them incompara- 
ble. One thing is certain: people who abandon them- 
selves to gallantry lose the ability to even conceive 
of the existence of a patriot, and we have reached 
that point to-day." 

It is almost with a sense of certitude that we con- 
elude that the girl he met in the Palais-Royal was 
his first mistress. The adventure, vulgar though 
it was, does not the less reveal his character ; there 
is his misogyny, his critical spirit, brusque speech, 
and the habit of interrogation which he never re- 
nounced ; his good memory, also, is noticeable in his 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 15 

account of it, for he reproduced in striking fashion 
the girl's manner of speech, even to the exclama- 
tion, -Z>awe / which proved her Breton origin. 

It is doubtful if Napoleon ever saw this girl 
again, for although among his papers, dated during 
that sojourn in Paris, there is a dissertation on 
patriotism which is addressed to a young lady, it is 
hardly a topic upon which one would write to a 
woman of her class. 

After this sojourn in Paris, which lasted from 
October to December of 178Y, Bonaparte again re- 
turned to Corsica, where he arrived on the 1st of 
January, 1Y88. He spent six months on the island, 
rejoining his regiment at Auxonne on the 1st of 
June ; no trace of any love-affair at that place 
remains to us. 

In the early part of 1Y89 he was sent to Seurre 
with a detachment, and is accredited with holding 

relations there, first with a Mme. L z, nie 

N s, the wife of the collector at the salt depot, 

later with a farmer's wife, Mme. G 1, to whose 

house he went to drink milk, and, lastly, with the 
daughter of the house wherein he lodged. This 
seems crowding a good deal into twenty-five days, 
during which time his books are silent witnesses 
to his assiduous study ; nevertheless, when, fourteen 
years later, on the 6th of April, 1805, Napoleon 



16 NAPOLEON, LOVER AOT) HUSBAND. 

passed through Seurre on his way to Milan, it is 
claimed that M. de Thiard, who was at that time 
his chamberlain, introduced into his presence the 
boarding-house young woman, and that he presented 
her with a scholarship in a government school for 
her son, a lad of twelve. The stated age of this 
child precludes the idea that Napoleon believed him 
to be his son ; moreover, had the Emperor enter- 
tained the least doubt upon the subject he would 
have done far more for the boy, and that without 
its being asked of him. 

In Corsica, where he spent the entire year of 1790, 
at Auxonne, at Valence, again in Corsica, then, in 
the middle of 1792, at Paris, there were no love- 
affairs ; we hear of none during the first campaign 
in the South against the Federalists, of none at 
Toulon. 

We must deliberately skip over a period of four 
years, during which the young lieutenant became a 
general of brigade and was placed in command of 
the artillery in Italy, where, in 1Y94, the Convention 
sent one of its influential members, the Citizen 
Louis Turreau, on a mission to the army. 

Representative Turreau was accompanied on his 
journey by his bride, who was the daughter of a 
surgeon at Versailles and a remarkably pretty 
woman ; he arrived at Cairo, in Piedmont, where 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 17 

Bonaparte was stationed, on the 21st of September, 
and, finding the young officer congenial, cultivated 
his acquaintance ; while Mme. Turreau and the 
artillery -man soon arrived at an understanding, 
Bonaparte's intimacy with Mme. Turreau never 
assumed the proportions of a liaison, for she was 
too fickle to remain long constant, and, evidently, it 
never aroused the husband's jealousy, for he retained 
a high opinion of the young officer's ability, and 
when the Convention was in danger it was he, as 
well as Barras, who urged confiding the command 
of the troops to Bonaparte and, with the Corsican 
deputies, became his surety. 

Bonaparte did not forget this service, and when 
placed in command of the army in Italy he took 
Turreau, who had not been re-elected, with him as 
commissary-general. Mme. Turreau again ac- 
companied her husband, and, in default of the gen- 
eral-in-chief , made the best of such lovers as courted 
her ; her conduct gave rise to continual scenes of 
jealousy, and Turreau, so it is said, died of a broken 
heart. The widow returned to Versailles, and in the 
early days of the Empire was dragging out a dreary 
existence there, when, one day, the Emperor chanced 
to mention her before Berthier, who was also a 
native of the town. The general had known Mme. 

Turreau from childhood, but for years had carefully 
2t 



18 NAPOLEON, LOVER AISTD HUSBAND. 

shunned her ; however, when he saw that the Em- 
peror took an interest in his old schoolfellow, he re- 
newed the acquaintanceship and espoused her cause, 
while Napoleon, never forgetful of a kindness, made 
haste to extricate madame from her financial em- 
harrassment, granted all her requests and assured 
for her the realization of her rosiest dreams. 

With the exception of Mme. Turreau, who threw 
herself at his head, women paid but scant attention 
to the little, pale, thin officer who was always badly- 
dressed and regardless of his appearance, and Napo- 
leon's early loves resolved themselves into trivial 
flirtations or vulgar adventures. He himself 
thought but little about women, being absorbed 
by his ambitious projects, and there was another, 
and valid reason for his chastity, he was poor. Pov- 
erty, however, did for him what it has done for 
many another man — forced him to consider matri- 
mony that he might be the sole recipient of a 
woman's caresses. 



KAPOLEOJSr, LOVER AND HUSBAKD. 19 



CHAPTER n. 

THOUGHTS OF MARRIAGE. 

WhHiE at Marseilles Napoleon played at love with 
Mme. Joseph Bonaparte's sister, Desiree-Eugenie 
Clary, then a pretty girl of sixteen ; she believed his 
attentions to be serious. Her girlishness vanished 
and she developed a woman's affection for him. 
Sixty -five years later the rough drafts of her letters to 
Napoleon were found among her effects ; they were 
all signed "Eugenie," for after the fashion of the 
time the young girl, whom her family called Desiree, 
had wished to be called by her lover by a name not 
used by others ; these letters, which are the spon- 
taneous outpouring of a pure affection, breathe the 
spirit of the period following upon the Reign of Ter- 
ror, when women made love a religion ; indeed, it 
was the only religion which existed on the ruins of 
society. 

"Oh, my friend," Mile. Clary wrote in one of her 
letters, "take care of yourself for my sake, fori 
could not live without you j guard as sacredly as I 



20 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

shall the promise which binds us, for were it broken 
I should die." 

Napoleon's acquaintance with Mile. Clary dated 
from January or February, 1795, and the engage- 
ment, if there was a formal one, must have taken 
place on the 21st of April, when Bonaparte passed 
through Marseilles on his way to Paris. There was 
no opposition to the marriage from the Clary family, 
for Joseph and his wife had long desired it, and 
Desiree's father, who is reported to have said "that 
one Bonaparte in the family was quite enough for 
him," had died on the 20th of January, 1794, and the 
remaining members of the family, Mme. Clary and 
her son, readily yielded to the young girl's wishes ; 
her youth was no obstacle to the marriage, for at 
that time girls were usually wed in their eighteenth 
year, and the First Civil Code had just fixed the 
thirteenth year as the legal age for a female to 
marry. Desiree Clary afterwards claimed, and offi- 
cially stated, that at this time she was between 
thirteen and fourteen years of age, but she must 
have been nearer seventeen, as she was born on the 
9th of November, 1777. 

Bonaparte arrived in Paris in May ; he was out of 
favor, out of funds, and his only hope lay in this 
marriage, failing in which nothing remained for him 
but to take service in Turkey, or, like many others, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 21 

to speculate in national securities. Even when, by 
degrees, his position improved, and he was employed 
by the Committee on Public Welfare on plans for 
the campaign, his position was precarious, and reaUz- 
ing its instability, believing that his sole salvation 
lay in this marriage, he urged Joseph to have a date 
fixed for the wedding, and in every letter which he 
wrote his brother at that time messages for Desiree 
appeared. 

For a while Mile. Clary was a faithful correspond- 
ent, but while at Genoa with her sister and brother- 
in-law she neglected her lover, and in one of Napo 
Icon's letters he said, "The road to Genoa leads 
through the waters of Lethe," called her the " silent 
one," and constantly reproached her for not writing. 
Finally, becoming impatient, he determined that a 
definite understanding should be arrived at, and 
wrote to Joseph that he must interview Desiree's 
brother and bring the m.atter to a head, and the 
following day, without giving his first letter 
time to reach Joseph, he wrote again saying : 
"This affair must either be concluded or broken 
off. I await an answer with the greatest impa- 
tience." Then a month passed, and save for 
friendly messages there was no correspondence be- 
tween the pair. 

The truth is, that Paris, the unknown, fascinating 



22 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

city -which he had entered with a worn uniform, 
leaky boots, and a suite composed of a couple of 
hungry aides-de-camps had interposed itself and its 
captivating women between Napoleon and the little 
Marseillaise. What a contrast there must have 
been between the immature girl and the elegant 
and worldly women of the capital ! Desiree could 
hardly have been beautiful, though there must have 
been a certain charm about her soft eyes with their 
penciled brows, retrousse nose, laughing mouth and 
reserved yet tender manner ; but between the young 
provincial and the elegant, graceful, well-dressed 
and beautiful, if artificial, Parisian women, there 
was the same difference as lies between hothouse 
fruit and that which ripens in the open air. The 
Parisians, created for a life of gaiety and excitement, 
highly refined in manner and adepts in the art of 
pleasing, were like hothouse fruit, which, carefully 
tended, reaches the highest state of perfection, and 
when exhibited to the best advantage by the fruit- 
erer appears, with its fine color and bloom, which 
the winds of heaven have never visited too roughly, 
much more appetizing than the fruit of the orchard 
which, kissed by the sun, whipped by the breeze, 
and not quite ripe, leaves in the mouth a fresh but 
somewhat tart taste. 

"In Paris alone," wrote Napoleon, "live women 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 23 

capable of holding the helm, A woman should live 
six months in Paris to learn what is her just due, 
and where her rightful domain." A few days later 
he wrote : ' ' The women here, who are certainly the 
most beautiful in the world, play a great role in all 
the affairs in life." 

The women who figured conspicuously in the 
society of that day certainly were beautiful and 
possessed of even a greater charm, a perfect knowl- 
edge of the amenities of life ; better versed in the 
art of inspiring affection than able to give it, they 
completely fascinated the young officer, and, having 
nothing save his hand to offer, he proffered that 
freely, laying his heart and hand first at the feet of 
Mme. de Permon, then proposing to Mme. de la 
Bouchardie, later to Mme. de Lesparda and finally 
to Mme. de Beauharnais who took him at his word. 

During all this time he never wrote to Desiree, 
and at last she lifted her voice in complaint, but so 
gently, so sweetly, that it sounds in one's ears like 
the sad strains of an ^olian harp. ''You have 
broken my heart," she wrote him, " yet I am weak 
enough to forgive you everything. You are mar- 
ried and I have no longer the right to love and think 
of you ; the only consolation which remains for 
me is to be assured of your belief in my constancy, 
then I long for death, for life is a burden, now that 



24 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

I may not consecrate it to you. I cannot accustom 
myself to the thought that you are married — it is 
too hard, too cruel ! I will prove to you that I am 
more faithful to my engagement than you to yours, 
and, though you have broken the chain which united 
us, I shall hold it binding ; I shall never marry. I 
wish you every happiness and all prosperity in your 
marriage, and I hope that the woman you have 
chosen will make you as happy as I had meant to 
do, and as you deserve ; but in the midst of your 
happiness remember poor Eugenie and pity her sad 
fate." 

Forgetfulness was foreign to Bonaparte's nature, 
and the memory of this love which he had inspired 
was always a tender point with him ; from a flirta- 
tion he had insensibly drifted into an entanglement 
which had ambition for its basis, and which had 
resulted in the breaking of a heart, and throughout 
his life he strove to undo the wrong and win for- 
giveness. While at Milan, in 1T9T, he planned a 
brilliant marriage for Desiree, who was in Eome 
with her sister and brother-in-law, Joseph being 
then ambassador at the court of Pius VI, and gave 
a warm letter of recommendation to General 
Duphot in which he spoke of him as '' a fine man 
and distinguished officer ; " and in a personal letter 
to Joseph he said, that an alliance with General 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 25 

Duphot would be a desirable one. Duphot made a 
favorable impression upon Mile. Clary, and their 
marriage contract was about to be signed when the 
terrible scene of December 28th took place and 
Desiree's dress was stained with the blood of her 
betrothed. 

After refusing several offers, Desiree finally con- 
sented, while Napoleon was in Egypt, to marry 
General Bernadotte. It was considered a fine 
match, but he was a most insupportable Jacobite, 
narrow-minded and opinionated ; a Bearnais by 
birth, he yet had none of the Gascon's sprightliness 
or readiness of speech, but possessed all their 
shrewdness and hid under apparent frankness a 
scheming brain. He held Mme. de Stael to be the 
cleverest of her sex because she was the most 
pedantic, and he spent the honeymoon in laying 
down the law to his young wife. 

The news of this marriage reached Bonaparte at 
Cairo, and although Bernadotte was his enemy, and 
the union displeased him, he wrote most kindly to 
Desiree, wishing her all happiness. 

When Napoleon returned from Egypt the first 
person to solicit a favor was Mme. Bernadotte, who 
asked him to stand godfather to her infant son. 
Intuitively she knew that a son was the one thing 
lacking to complete Napoleon's happiness, and, as if 



26 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

to spite Josephine, whom she hated, and whom she 
always spoke of as the ''old woman," Desiree boasted 
of her maternity. Bonaparte kindly consented to 
stand for the child, and with Ossian's martial ballads 
in mind named the baby Oscar. Years later Napo- 
leon said : " Bernadotte's becoming a marshal of 
France, prince of Pontecorvo and king of Sweden 
was all owing to his marriage with my first sweet- 
heart," and it was for her sake that Napoleon par- 
doned all Bernadotte's disloyalty during the Empire. 

From the very first Bernadotte manifested his 
opposition to Bonaparte ; nevertheless, he was called 
to a seat in the Council of State, then named 
general-in-chief of the army in the West, where he 
not only opposed, but openly conspired against the 
First Consul, aspiring to gain command of the army. 
For this he received no punishment. Bonaparte 
simply, in order to get rid of him, appointed him 
minister plenipotentiary to the United States, a 
post which Bernadotte expressed himself as per- 
fectly willing to accept, playing his game so well, 
however, that the frigate which was to bear him 
to his destination was never ready to sail. 

The following year saw the conspiracy in which 
Moreau was implicated, and Bernadotte again 
escaped unpunished, because Napoleon so willed it, 
Desiree's welfare being always in his mind ; he did 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 27 

still raore for her, for, redeeming Moreau's estate, 
his property at Grosbois, and his hotel in the rue 
d'Anjou, for which he paid four hundred thousand 
francs, he presented it to Bernadotte. The Empire 
established, Napoleon, for Eugenie's sake, created 
her husband a marshal of the empire, chief of the 
eighth corps of the Legion of Honor, president of the 
electoral college of Vaucluse and Chevalier de 
VAigle Noir ; for Desiree's sake he gave the couple 
an income of three hundred thousand francs, a lump 
sum of two hundred thousand francs and the sover- 
eignty of the principality of Pontecorvo. For the love 
of her Napoleon forgave Bernadotte after Auer- 
staedt,Wagram, and Walcheren, condoned two mili- 
tary blunders, which were probably something more 
serious than blunders, coming as they did on top of 
a flagrant conspiracy in which Bernadotte, Fouche 
and Talleyrand, in complicity with the royalists, 
brought into play the same tactics by which, in 1814, 
the return of Louis le Desiree was effected. 

Thus, over her husband's shoulders, Napoleon's 
one-time sweetheart received attentions and favors 
which would be surprising did we not know that he 
was ever actuated by the desire to atone for the sor- 
row and mortification he had once caused her. Two 
days after the battle of Spandau, in which Berna- 
dotte was wounded, Napoleon wrote to him, saying : 



28 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

"I am glad to learn that Mme. Bernadotte is 
with you ; pray give her my affectionate regards and 
add that I have one little thing to reproach her 
with. She might have written me a line giving me 
the news of Paris, but I will have it out with her 
when we meet. " 

Although Mme. Bernadotte never appeared at 
court, for she detested Josephine and the entire 
Beauharnais family and was at no pains to conceal 
her dislike, Napoleon showered gifts upon her. He 
presented her with priceless Sevres vases and Gobelin 
tapestries, it was for her that he reserved one of the 
three magnificent fur pelisses which the emperor of 
Eussia presented to him after Erfurt ; yet, appear- 
ances to the contrary, his friendship was entirely 
disinterested. Was it not of Desiree's aggrandize- 
ment that he was thinking, when, after Walcheren, 
he meditated sending Bernadotte to Eome as gov- 
ernor-general to represent the court of France at 
the Quirinal, thus creating him a high imperial 
dignitary with an emolument of three million francs, 
and putting him upon an equality with Borghese 
who was at Turin, Elias at Florence, and almost 
with Eugene who was at Milan ? 

When the sovereignty of Sweden was offered to 
Eugene de Beauharnais he declined the honor, not 
wishing to become an apostate, and it was due to 



NAPOLEON^, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 29 

the good-natured neutrality of Napoleon that Berna- 
dotte was elected hereditary prince of that country. 
If Napoleon's political moves at this period are 
incomprehensible to some historians, it is because 
they failed to take into account the part which his 
heart played in the affairs of state ; he was seduced 
by the pleasure of seeing the woman in whom he 
took so warm an interest become a queen, his god- 
son heir apparent to a throne. He regulated mi- 
nutely the details of Desiree's presentation and leave- 
taking as princess of Sweden, and, unprecedented 
favor, he invited her to one of the family's Sun- 
day dinners. He conferred upon the newly-elected 
prince of Sweden a purse of a million francs from 
the public treasury, repurchased the property with 
which he had originally presented him, negotiated 
with him the return of Pontecorvo and gave a title 
and sum of money to Bernadotte's brother ; certainly 
Napoleon was justified in writing to Desiree, " You 
must long since have been convinced of the interest 
I take in your family. " 

Four months after the receipt of all this kindness 
Bernadotte combined with Russia against Napoleon ; 
less than a year afterwards everything indicated 
that a rupture between France and Sweden was im- 
minent, and Desiree, who had most reluctantly 
consented to take a short journey to Stockholm, 



30 NAPOLEON, LOYEE, AND HUSBAND. 

then made haste to return to her hotel in the rue 
d'Anjou. 

Then, exercising the greatest caution, Napoleon 
wrote to the minister of Foreign Affairs requesting 
that he speak to the Swedish ambassador regarding 
Desiree's presence in France, and state, as delicately 
as possible, that he was sorry to see that the Princess 
Royal had come into the country without permis- 
sion, which was not customary, and that he regretted 
her leaving her husband under the existing circum- 
stances. Desiree paid no attention to the ambas- 
sador's admonitions, but proceeded to install herself, 
and in November, when war was about to be declared, 
the Emperor wrote a second time and sent Cam- 
baceres to the queen of Spain (Julie Clary) saying 
that he wished the princess to leave Paris and return 
to Sweden as it was not proper that she should be in 
France at that time. 

His wishes availed nothing, and Desiree remained 
in Paris, continued to order her dresses from Leroy, 
to receive her friends and hold her receptions ; she 
went to the baths with her sister and returned to 
Paris as though nothing unusual was taking place ; 
she even considered it singular that the Frenchmen 
whom she received should blame the former marshal 
of the Empire who had then assumed command of 
the allied forces in the north of Germany. If one 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 31 

can believe those who claim to be well informed, 
Desiree was both ungrateful and a traitor, and while 
conveying to her husband Napoleon's adjurations, 
acted between Bernadotte, Fouche and Talleyrand 
as an intermediary. 

If demonstrated that Desiree profited by the Em- 
peror's weakness for her to become a link in an in- 
trigue between conspirators who knew each other of 
old, one must think badly of her character, and it is 
pleasanter to believe that she remained in Paris 
because of her love for the city, that she might not 
leave her sister, nieces and friends, or be obliged to 
alter the habits of a lifetime. 

She was in Paris in 1814, and took part, with other 
people of rank, in the visit of Alexander of Russia ; 
she was still there in 1815, during the hundred days, 
and on the I7th of June, the eve of Waterloo, she 
ordered a nankin riding-habit and a percale dressing- 
gown trimmed with Valenciennes from Leroy ; her 
lack of interest in Napoleon's success in the stupen- 
dous game he was playing, with all Europe for his 
adversaries, clearly proves that hers was the forget- 
ful spirit. 



82 NAPOLEOlSr, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER III. 

JOSEPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS. 

Towards the end of October, 1795, hazard brought 
together the Vicomtesse de Beauharnais and General 
Bonaparte. The latter had sprung suddenly from 
obscurity to publicity, and his name, but recently so 
little known that Barras had written it " Buona- 
Parta,^' had been spoken in thunderous tones to the 
whole of France by the cannon which crushed the 
rebel sections of the Convention. 

Second in command of the army of the Interior, 
soon to be commander-in-chief, Bonaparte had or- 
dered the disarmament of the Parisians. A youth 
came to his quarters begging permission to keep his 
father's sword ; Napoleon saw the boy and, being at- 
tracted by him, granted his request, and the mother 
then called to express her thanks. She was a great 
lady, a ci-devant vicomtesse, the widow of a 
president of the Constituency, of a courtier, of the 
commander-in-chief of the army of the Rhine, and 
she was a revelation to Bonaparte ; her title, birtb 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 33 

and education, the easy, graceful manner in which 
she expressed her thanks, all charmed him. For the 
first time in his twenty-six years of life the young 
provincial, to whom no woman of quality had ever 
paid the slightest attention, found himself in the 
presence of one of those elegant, accomplished and 
desirable creatures whom he had seen and admired 
from afar. He was in a position which gratified his 
pride, that of a protector, and this role which he 
played for the first time suited him marvellously ; 
while Mme. Beauharnais, who was reduced to all 
sorts of expediencies, discerned at once what manner 
of man she had to deal with. 

A Creole, native of the island of Martinique, she 
had been married at the age of sixteen to the Vicomte 
de Beauharnais ; a marriage arranged by her aunt, 
who lived openly with the Marquis de Beauharnais, 
the bridegroom's father. From the time she first 
came to Paris, in 1779, Josephine Tascher de la Pa- 
gerie, Mme. de Beauharnais, led a wretched exist- 
ence ; deceived and abandoned by her husband, and 
finally separated from him, through no fault of hers, 
she had no social distractions ; she was never pre- 
sented at court, for she lived with her aunt whose 
position was equivocal, but it is claimed that after 
her separation from her husband she made use of 
her liberty. Keturning to Martinique she remained 



34 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

there until her safety was threatened by the insur- 
rection, when she escaped to France, and becoming 
reconciled with M. de Beauharnais, who was then 
deputy of the Etats-G6neraux, president of the Con- 
stituency and general-in-chief of the army of the 
Ehine, she enjoyed a brief period of happiness ; her 
salon was then frequented by men of note and letters, 
and for the first time she tasted the sweets of social 
position. Then came the Reign of Terror ; Beau- 
harnais was imprisoned and guillotined and she 
escaped only by a miracle. 

When released from prison Josephine de Beau- 
harnais was thirty years of age, the mother of two 
children and penniless. Aided by some feminine 
connections which she had formed in prison, for she . 
had none elsewhere, she launched herself into 
society. With the money which she received from 
Martinique, loans which she made wherever possible, 
debts which she contracted in every direction, she 
managed to keep up an appearance. She left her 
apartment in the rue de I'Universit^ and rented 
from Louise-Julie Carreau, the wife of Talma, for 
the sum of four thousand pounds a year in cash, or 
ten thousand in notes, a small hotel. No. 6, rue 
Chantereine, where she installed herself in October, 
1794. 

A year passed, debts accumulated, and nothing 



NAPOLEOISr, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 35 

came in ; probably with Creole insouciance Josephine 
failed to give proper consideration to her financial 
affairs, or hoped that some miracle might extricate 
her from her difficulties, and, while showing herself 
everywhere where the society of that day amused 
itself, she picked up acquaintances who were in- 
strumental in the restoration of some of her 
husband's property, but she ran through it as fast 
as it came into her possession. She possessed 
nothing, neither capital nor fixed income. At her 
marriage she had received a dot of one hundred 
thousand francs from which she was to receive a 
yearly interest at the rate of five per cent. ; but her 
father was dead, her mother very poor, and 
the island blockaded by the English. Her aunt, 
Mme. Eenaudin, had given her some unimproved 
real estate, but it had long since been disposed of ; 
moreover, no one can squeeze an income out of un- 
improved property, and of credit she had none. 
Mme. Eenaudin helped her a little by loans, and 
there were one or two obliging bankers who accepted 
drafts on Martinique, who even advised her going 
to Hamburg where she could receive her remittances 
with less trouble ; but she was in a desperate posi- 
tion, credit exhausted and age creeping on ; it was 
at this critical moment that General Bonaparte 
rang the bell of the house in the rue Chantereine 



36 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

and returned the visit of Mme. la Vicomtesse de 
Beauharnais. 

Napoleon did not know that the house, which was 
rather imposing in appearance, was the property of 
Citizeness Talma, who, when she was Mile. Julie, had 
received it as a price of her favors to a lover ; nor 
did he know that this property, in an out-of-the-way 
corner of Paris, within a stone's-throw of the rue 
Saint-Lazare, on which its garden, in almost its 
original extent, touches to this day, was worth only 
fifty thousand francs. A man-servant responded 
to the bell and ushered the general through a long 
open passage, on one side of which, in a sort of 
pavilion, the stable was situated, its open door 
revealing two black horses and a red cow ; the 
carriage-house, which contained a shabby carriage, 
was carefully closed. 

The passage gave into a garden in the centre of 
which stood the house, a modest structure of one 
story and basement surmounted by a mansard ; 
four high windows pierced its fagade and a low 
porch, with a simple balustrade in the style of a 
terrace, ran across it. Bonaparte mounted the steps, 
entered an antechamber, scantily furnished by a 
brass fountain, the lower half of an oak wardrobe 
and a pine settee, from whence the servant in- 
troduced him into the dining-room, where he was 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 37 

free to choose between a seat on one of the four 
black haircloth-covered chairs which surrounded 
the mahogany table, or to wander about and look 
at the engravings which, framed in black and gold, 
decorated the walls. The room was not luxurious, 
but here and there serving tables, of mahogany or 
of the yellow wood of Guadaloupe with marble tops 
and gilded trimmings, bore witness to former opu- 
lence ; while behind the glass doors of two cabinets 
a collection of table accessories, and a tea-service of 
English plate made a fine showing ; of silver, in the 
proper sense of the word, there was none. 

Josephine, all tricked out by her maid, the 
Citizeness Louise Compoint, hastened to the dining- 
room to greet her guest ; she could not receive him 
elsewhere as the first floor of the house comprised 
only that apartment, her bed-chamber and a small 
apartment which served as a dressing-room. 

Josephine's bedroom, though simple, was tasteful 
and pretty, the furniture was of mahogany and the 
yellow wood of Guadaloupe ; there was a gay toilet 
set of blue nankin with decorations of red and 
yellow coxcombs, the low double bed was daintily 
draped, and the room was ornamented by a harp 
of Kenaud's make and a little marble bust of 
Socrates ; the dressing-room, with the exception 
of a Kenaud piano, was chiefly furnished with look- 



38 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

ing glasses ; there was one on the toilet-table, another 
on the chest of drawers, one on the night stand, and 
over the chimney hung a double pier-glass. 

Such were the surroundings of this high-bred 
woman. Except on festive occasions, when she 
brought out a small service of blue and white por- 
celain, she ate off earthen-ware ; the table linen was 
composed of eight tableclothes, of which four were 
of bird's-eye, and all so worn, that when the inven- 
tory was taken the entire supply of household linen 
was estimated at a value of four pounds. Bonaparte 
was ignorant of all this ; he did not know that the 
elegant and charming woman who stood before him, 
whose tasteful toilet pleased his eye, whose infinite 
grace troubled his senses, possessed scarcely enough 
underwear to clothe her decently ; he saw only a 
charming and elegant woman, a woman to arouse 
desire. 

Josephine's hair was brown, of a fine quality but 
not over luxurious ; however, in those days, blonde 
wigs and a suspicion of powder were in vogue ; her 
complexion was rather dark and already somewhat 
faded, but art concealed the ravages of time ; her 
teeth were poor, but were never displayed, and she 
had a dear little mouth which was always curved 
in a slight smile, the sweetness of which accorded 
with the exceeding softness of her eyes, with her 



FAPOLEON, LOVER ATD HUSBAi^D. 39 

gentle expression and the touching quality of her 
voice, to catch a sound of which the servants, in 
later years, loitered in the corridors of the Tuileries. 
Her nose was small, with sensitive, quivering nostrils, 
and slightly inclined to be retroussS. 

Her head, however, was not to be compared with 
her tall, supple body, which terminated in slender, 
arched feet, whose beauty may yet be divined by a 
glance at the shoes she once wore. Her form was 
unfettered, she did not even wear a girdle to support 
the bosom, which was, however, very small. General 
effect is everything, and this woman possessed a 
charm and grace peculiarly her own ; long practice 
had rendered her every movement graceful and 
refined ; she never lost an advantage, was constantly 
on her guard, leaving nothing to chance, and she 
had that indefinable nonchalance of the Creole which 
is so attractive, while about her floated like a per- 
fume that sensuality which makes the Creole woman 
essentially feminine and is so intoxicating to man. 
Napoleon, younger and more inexperienced than the 
majority of men, was peculiarly susceptible to it ; 
it was that about the woman which had appealed 
to him at their first meeting, even while she dazzled 
him by her imposing manner, which he spoke of as 
being ''that calm and dignified demeanor which 
belongs to the old regime." 



40 NAPOLEOISr, LOVEB AND HUSBAND. 

Mme. de Beauharnais saw that the young officer 
was completely captivated, and when he called the 
following day, and the day after, and so on day 
after day, she understood that her empire over him 
was absolute. Seeing Mme. de Beauharnais sur- 
rounded by men of the old court who were his 
superiors by rank and birth, Segur, Montesquiou, 
Caulaincourt, all of whom treated him with a cer- 
tain degree of familiarity, Napoleon failed to 
perceive that these men, who, in his estimation, had 
lost nothing of their former prestige, came to her 
house as bachelors, to divine that their wives would 
not visit there. Coming from the Jacobin circle in 
which he had always lived, and which at Vaucluse, 
Toulon, Nice, and Paris had advanced his interest, 
he took infinite delight in the company in which he 
found himself. The luxuries of the lady, like her 
nobility and social position, were all delusions, but 
his senses aiding, were accepted by Napoleon as 
realities. 

A fortnight after his first visit they were lovers. 
Judging from writings they were still only friends, 
but a witness of the times tells us that transitions 
were rapid, that fine distinctions were not made, and 
the world moved fast. 

They loved passionately. Such love was natural 
enough on his part ; on hers — well, possibly it was 



FAPOLEOK, LOVEE AND HUSBAIsrD. 41 

equally so, for Bonaparte was a new toy, a savage 
to be tamed, and the lion of the day. 

To a woman like Josephine, no longer in her first 
youth, such ardor, such intense passion, burning 
kisses and constant craving for her presence, was 
the most flattering of tributes, for it proved that 
she was still beautiful and able to please. All this 
made Napoleon attractive as a lover, but hardly rec- 
ommended him for a husband ; however, when he 
offered himself, he was accepted, for she was in a 
desperate situation and had nothing to lose by the 
marriage, while it offered a chance of betterment. 
Bonaparte was young and ambitious, was general- 
in- chief of the army of the Interior, the Directory 
had not forgotten that it was he who arranged the 
plans for the last Italian campaign, and Carnot 
proposed creating him commander-in-chief in the 
approaching campaign ; such a marriage, therefore, 
might be her salvation and committed her to noth- 
ing, for divorces were easily obtained in those days 
when there was no longer any question of priests 
and religious ceremonies, and it was simply a con- 
tract which endured as long as both parties desired 
to observe it, but which meant nothing either to the 
woman's conscience or to society. 

Bonaparte was a man capable of great things, and 
Josephine argued that if she played her part well 



42 napoleojst, lover akd husband. 

she would share any honors accruing to him, while 
if he was killed she was sure of a pension as his 
widow. Nevertheless, she took some precautions ; 
in the first place she dissimulated about her age, for 
she did not wish either her young lover, or any one, 
to know that she had passed her thirty-second year. 
Accompanied by Calmelet, her confidential adviser 
and one of the guardians of her children, and by a 
person of the name of Lesourd, she went to a notary's 
where those two certified: "That Marie Josephine 
Tascher, widow of Citizen Beauharnais, was well 
known to them, that she was a native of the island 
of Martinique, and that as the island was at that 
moment occupied by the English it was impossible 
for her to secure a certificate of her birth ; " armed 
with this legal document Josephine was able to 
declare to the civil officer that she was born on the 
23d of June, 1767, whereas she was born on June 
23d, 1763. 

Josephine also deceived Napoleon regarding her 
fortune, which one would suppose was a difficult 
thing to accomplish, but Napoleon accepted all her 
statements, and there was drawn up privately, 
with only the general's aide-de-camp, Lemarrois, 
as witness, the strangest marriage contract which 
had ever come under the notary's observation. 
There was no property in common of any sort, com- 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 43 

plete authority was given by the prospective bride- 
groom to the prospective bride, the guardianship of 
her children by her first marriage remained entirely 
with her, and a dowry of fifteen hundred pounds 
of rent was bequeathed her in the event of his death, 
and in that event all property belonging to her 
previous to this marriage was to be restored. 

Personal property there was none ; all that the 
future wife possessed belonged to the estate of her- 
self and the late M. de Beauharnais, and no inven- 
tory of it existed ; it was therefore impossible for her 
to decide whether she would keep it for her personal 
use or share it with Bonaparte. Such an inventory 
was taken two years later and Josephine refused all 
claim to the property. In those two years she had 
bettered herself. Napoleon frankly avowed his lack 
of fortune, declaring himself possessed of no real 
estate and no worldly possessions other than his 
wardrobe and military equipments which were 
valued by him at a nominal sum suggested by the 
notary. He was really, as the notary said to Mme. 
de Beauharnais, ''as poor as a church mouse." 
Bonaparte himself thought the declaration of his 
worldly possessions ridiculous, and simply erased 
that paragraph from the marriage contract. 

The contract was dated March 8th, 1Y96, and the 
following day the marriage was celebrated by a 



44 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

civil ofiScer, who was gracious enough to register 
the groom's age as twenty-eight, and the bride's as 
twenty-nine instead of thirty-three ; Barras, Lemar- 
rois (who was not then of age), TaUien and the in- 
evitable Calmelet were the witnesses. There is no 
mention of the parents of either party having sanc- 
tioned the marriage, and probably they were not 
consulted. 

Two days afterwards General Bonaparte left to 
join the army in Italy, while Mme. Bonaparte re- 
mained at her home in the rue Chantereine. 



NAPOLEOIT, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 45 



CHAPTER IV. 

CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 

Napoleon was ten days on the road between Paris 
and Nice, and from every posthouse where he 
stopped for relays, he dispatched a letter to the 
" Citizeness Bonaparte, in care of Citizeness Beau- 
harnais." 

In these letters there is naught save love ; ambi- 
tion finds no place ; there is no reference to his plans, 
no incertitude expressed regarding the future ; he 
was so sure of himself, that he felt no need of a 
confidant, or of discussing his intentions and the 
likelihood of his success. He was like a prince of 
bygone days sallying forth to an assured victory. 
and his letters to his bride breathed only passionate 
love. 

From the moment that he arrived at Kice, even 
while speaking a few brief words to the demoralized 
troops which constituted his army, words which 
encouraged their hopes and roused their enthusiasm, 
even while enforcing obedience from the revolting 



46 KAPOLEON, LOVER AKD HUSBAND. 

generals, while organizing, equipping and provid- 
ing for the nourishment of the disorganized forces 
which he was to lead across the Alj)s, he found time 
to write letter after letter to Josephine. ''When 
tempted to curse my fate," he wrote, "I lay my 
hand over my heart, and, feeling your picture there, 
love renders me supremely happy, and all of life 
seems bright, save the time which I must spend 
away from you." Napoleon never parted from the 
miniature to which he referred, showed it to every 
one and prayed to it at night, and when by accident 
the glass was broken, he was terribly distressed, 
fancying it presaged death. 

Bonaparte's love for Josephine was like the ador- 
ation of the faithful, the exaltation of the be- 
liever ; if the soldiers knew of his infatuation they 
did not make sport of it, for the majority were of 
his age and race, and extravagant dreams filled 
their brains as well as his. 

In spite of his youth. Napoleon was just the man 
to lead such a strangely assorted army ; his thin, 
pale, immobile face, framed by long locks, which he 
wore slightly powdered, impressed the soldiers by 
its inscrutability, his piercing eyes seemed to read 
their very souls, his glance cowed them. Below 
him in command, were such men as Augereau, a 
deserter from half the armies of Europe, a familiar 



NAPOLEON", LOVER AND HUSBAISTD. 47 

old fellow and a bully, and Massena, one-time 
smuggler and pirate, as fond of women as he was 
of money, and indifferent to the means of securing 
both. These men would gladly have overthrown 
the young upstart who was in command of them, 
but he looked them straight in the eye, and, like 
wild beasts before the tamer, they growled, but 
grovelled. The mass of officers and soldiers, for 
there were not many such ruffians as Landrieux, did 
not need to be cowed, for their hearts were Napo- 
leon's from the first ; the greater part of the men 
had been in the Egyptian army and had served an 
apprenticeship of abnegation ; each had in his soul 
something of the spirit of La Tour D'Auvergne, and 
was animated by patriotism and love of glory. 

In this war, officers refused advancement as an 
insult, corporals turned the tide of battle, common 
soldiers improvised themselves into generals and 
devised strategic movements ; an electric current of 
genius circulated in the ranks ; men disdained death 
and were gay in the face of it with joyous stoicism. 
In all these respects Napoleon was a worthy com- 
mander; to vanquish, to conquer the enemies of 
France, were the means by which he would be 
enabled to see his beloved and have her at his side, 
and with this desire urging him on, he won, in April, 
1796, six battles, took twenty-one flags and forced 



48 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. - 

Piedmont to capitulate. " My brave boys," he said 
to his troops, "I appreciate and am grateful for 
your gallant conduct ! " and doubtless he was thor- 
oughly sincere, for, thanks to their gallantry, Jose- 
phine could join him. 

ISl'apoleon despatched Junot to Paris with the hard- 
won trophies and with orders to bring Mme. Bona- 
parte back with him, and to his wife he had written, 
"Hasten, for I warn you that if you linger you will 
find me ill ; fatigue and your absence combined are 
more than I can bear." It was no lie to draw her 
to his side, for he was consumed by a continual fever 
and exhausted by a persistent cough ; the itch, from 
which he had suffered at Toulon, had reappeared and 
affected his stomach, making him almost consump- 
tive, while his incessant craving for Josephine also 
wore upon his health. He wrote to her, " You are 
coming, are you not, my darling ? You will soon 
be here at my side and I can hold you in my arms, 
close to my heart which beats only for you. Oh, 
take wings, beloved, and fly to me ! " 

No other woman had the least attraction for him. 
At Cairo, a prisoner of war, the mistress of a Pied- 
montese officer was brought to his tent ; she was 
young and beautiful and at sight of her his eye 
gleamed for a moment, then he greeted the captive 
with calm and gentle dignity, and keeping his 



UAPOLEOIsr, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 49 

officers with him, arranged for her transportation 
to the outposts and return to her lover. 

In this case he may possibly have been actuated 
by motives of policy, but at Milan, when Grassini 
made every effort to seduce him, singing for him so 
exquisitely that the whole army were enthralled, 
he paid the singer but repulsed the woman. There 
was only one woman in the world for him then, and 
the voluptuous happiness he found in her arms satis- 
fied all his desires, he longed only for her caresses 
and was impatient for her arrival. 

Following the fortunes of war was not to 
Josephine's taste ; she found it far more agreeable 
to remain in Paris and enjoy the fruits of her hus- 
band's success, which had made her one of the most 
courted women of the capital, than to share his 
fortunes in camp. No one refused credit to the wife 
of the general-in-chief of the French forces in Italy ; 
moreover, Bonaparte had sent her power of attorney, 
so that she was able to indulge her extravagant 
tastes ; she was at every fete and ball, at all the 
receptions at the Luxembourg, which under Barras 
had recovered their princely splendor, and where, 
next to Mme. Tallien, who was the social leader, 
Josephine was the most important of the ladies. 

She was the cynosure of all eyes when, after Junot 
had presented the Directory with the trophies of her 



50 KAPOLBON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

husband's battles, she left the hall leaning on 
his arm, and she gloried in the adulation which 
her husband's victories had brought her. When 
she entered her box at the theatre the parquet 
rose as one man and cheered ; at official fetes, at 
the celebration of the victories, it almost seemed to 
Josephine that the honor was hers, so great was the 
attention paid her. Paris, too, enchained her ; the 
city had taken such a hold on her that the idea of 
living elsewhere was intolerable, and ever after- 
wards that feeling predominated ; she strove to the 
end of her days to remain in Paris. 

Napoleon awaited her arrival in a state bordering 
on frenzy ; he was both anxious and tormented by 
jealousy, and wrote letter after letter, sent courier 
after courier to hasten her coming. '' What are 
you doing ? " he wrote her, ^' why do you not come ? 
If it is a lover that detains you, beware of Othello's 
dagger ! " 

Josephine found it necessary to invent excuses for 
her delay, as Joseph Bonaparte had been sent to 
hasten her departure, and Junot, in spite of the 
pleasure he took in exhibiting himself in his hussar 
uniform, was about to rejoin the army, so, unless 
she could hit upon a really good excuse for remain- 
ing in Paris, she knew she must accompany him. 
After Cherasco had followed Lodi, and the army 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 51 

was at that moment at Milan, therefore it was no 
longer a hivouac but a palace which awaited her. 

Poor health was an old story, but an illness oc- 
casioned by the beginning of pregnancy she thought 
would be an excellent excuse, and, indeed, when that 
news reached Bonaparte he was delighted. In one 
of his letters he says to her, ' ' I have wronged you 
greatly, and I do not know how I shall ever expiate 
my fault ; I reproached you for remaining in Paris 
when you were suffering. Forgive me, darling, for 
the love with which you have inspired me has de- 
prived me of my common sense ; I shall never regain 
it ; I am incurable. I am filled with gloomy fore- 
bodings ; I fear for your safety ; could I but hold 
you in my arms I should be happy ; but the distance 
which separates us fills me with misgivings. A 
child, as adorable as yourself, will soon lie in your 
arms ! . . . It seems to me that could I but see 
you once, hold you for an instant in my arms, I 
should be content, but, unfortunate man that I am, 
I cannot go to you even for a moment." 
On that same day he wrote to Joseph : 
"My friend, lam in despair, for my wife, the 
only creature in the world whom I love, is ill, and I 
am oppressed with the most gloomy forebodings 
because of her coAdition. I beseech you to tell me 
exactly how she is, and by the tie of blood and the 



52 KAPOLEON, liOVEK AND HUSBAKD. 

tender friendship which unites us, beg that you will 
give her the tender care which it would be my 
greatest joy to give her. You cannot love her as I 
do, but you are the only person on earth who can, 
even in a measure, take my place ; you are the only 
man on earth for whom I have always entertained a 
warm and constant affection, you and my Josephine 
are the only beings in whom I feel any interest. 
Reassure me ; tell me the truth. You know my 
ardent nature, that I have never loved before, that 
Josephine is the first woman I have ever truly cared 
for, and you can understand that her illness drives 
me distracted. I am alone, given over to fears and 
ill health, nobody writes to me and I feel deserted 
by all, even by you. If my wife is able to stand the 
journey I desire that she should come to me, for I 
need her. I love her to distraction and I can no 
longer endure this separation. If she has ceased to 
love me my mission on earth is finished. I leave 
myself in your hands, my best of friends, and I 
beseech you to so arrange matters that my courier 
will not be obliged to remain in Paris more than six 
hours, to hasten his return with the news which 
will give me new life." 

Napoleon had become really desperate and threat- 
ened, if his wife did not join him, to send in his 
resignation, abandon everything and return to 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 53 

Paris. Josephine realized that further excuses were 
futile ; she could not deceive Joseph by pretending 
illness, for he saw that she was able to go to every 
entertainment and bore the fatigues of pleasure 
remarkably well ; while as for her last and best ex- 
cuse, that which had touched her husband so deeply, 
it was too evidently a fiction for her to insist longer 
upon it. So at last she was obliged to prepare for 
the hated journey, and after a farewell supper at 
the Luxembourg, in the lowest of spirits, blinded 
by tears, she stepped into a travelling carriage and, 
in company with Joseph Bonaparte, Junot, Citizen 
Hippolyte Charles, the assistant of Adjutant-General 
Leclerc, her maid Louise Compoint and her dog 
Fortune, she started for Milan. 

Louise Compoint, nicknamed the officious, ate at 
the same table with her mistress, was almost as well 
dressed, and had little of the menial about her. 
Her room in the rue Chantereine in nowise resem- 
bled a servant's, but with its curtains and portieres 
of Siamese stuff, alabaster and gilt candelabrum, 
Sevres statuettes and jardinieres and handsome 
brass-trimmed furniture was really better appointed 
than Mme. Bonaparte's. Louise Compoint's relations 
to Josephine were doubtless those of a confidante 
whom it was desirable to conciliate, for, although 
they afterwards disagreed, she paid the girl a pen- 



54 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBANDt 

sion up to 1805. During the journey, which was 
slow and seems to have been designedly prolonged, 
Junot managed to ingratiate himself into Mile. 
Louise's good graces, and although Josephine sub- 
sequently showed herself far from indifferent to 
the admiration of M. Charles, she was for the 
moment furious because Junot preferred her maid 
to herself. 

Although the travellers left Paris at the end of 
June they had not reached Milan on the 8th of July, 
and Bonaparte, who was obliged to leave there and 
go to face Wurmser's army, sent a courier begging 
his wife to join him at Verona. ''I need you," he 
wrote, ' ' for I feel that I am on the eve of a severe 
illness." Josephine, however, preferred to await his 
return to Milan, whither he rushed the moment he 
could leave the field, and they spent two days to- 
gether, then he was obliged to face the crisis at 
Castiglione. 

Never was there a graver situation, danger more 
imminent, it was not simply a question of avoiding 
defeat, but of annihilation ; yet during the terrible 
mental strain which followed, when he was massing 
his divisions and manoeuvring to prevent disaster, 
at the moment when his destiny was at stake and 
his star seemed to waver, when, for the first time, he 
was assailed with doubts of himself, Napoleon still 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 55 

found time for a daily love-letter. ''Show me some 
of your faults," he wrote, "be less beautiful, less 
gracious, tender and good, above all never be jeal- 
ous and never weep, for your tears drive me crazy, 
they fire my blood. . . . Rejoin me as soon as you 
possibly can, that ere death can part us we may have 
more happy days together." 

Throughout their entire separation the same wild 
passion was daily expressed ; in order that Josephine 
should rejoin him, so that he might sometimes 
spend a day or an hour in her society, he entreated, 
implored, and finally was forced to command ; and 
she, grown a little more submissive in the face of 
conquered Italy and that fantastic army, feeling 
vaguely that her husband belonged to the race of 
chiefs whom one must obey, made the effort to join 
him. 

It was a strange journey which Josephine made 
across a country torn by war ; sometimes she was 
forced to flee before the Austrian forces, sometimes 
she made a triumphal passage through the towns of 
new Italy, where she was welcomed like a sovereign ; 
it was made through armies sometimes victorious, 
sometimes disbanded ; she travelled in carriages, 
which were continually being upset, and on horse- 
back ; and in the brief intervals of her perilous jour- 
ney Bonaparte made ardent love within the sound 



56 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

of drums beating a charge, under fire, and by the 
light of bombarded cities. 

When Josephine was with him Bonaparte spent 
the entire time at her side in an attitude of devo- 
tion ; when absent, he sent courier after courier 
bearing messages of affection ; from every one of 
those unknown towns, whose names he rendered 
immortal, he dispatched letters in which passionate 
declarations of tenderness, of confidence and even 
of gratitude are mingled with jealous imprecations. 
It was a constant cry from a hungry heart, from a 
man who had lived chastely, towards the mistress 
older, more worldly, more sophisticated than him- 
self, who satisfied his heart and senses. 

Unintentionally, Bonaparte borrowed his episto- 
lary style from Rousseau, not that he was insincere 
or that his love was a pretext for literary efforts, but 
because he was imbued with that style ; he did not 
know, and never learned how to speak of love in 
any other fashion ; he was a disciple of Jean- Jacques 
to the end of his days. Josephine was neither of the 
same nationality, education or temperament, and 
his perpetual elation and continuous demands upon 
her affection wearied and bored her. It was pleas- 
ant to hold the first place in the heart of so extraor- 
dinary a man, and his youthful fervor interested 
her at first, but there was a brutality in the expres- 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 57 

sion of his love which shocked, rather than appealed 
to her jaded senses, and of ten rendered her husband's 
caresses repugnant. 

She was recompensed in a measure for the un- 
pleasant experiences of her sojourn in Italy by the 
offerings from cities, princes, generals and mer- 
chants which poured in upon her ; but although she 
received and spent a great deal of money, she was 
not a mercenary woman. As prodigal as short- 
sighted, easily tempted and yielding, Josephine ac- 
cepted willingly and gave capriciously, seeing no 
wrong in either course, and simply obeying her in- 
stincts ; nevertheless she managed that Bonaparte 
remained in ignorance of her doings, knowing that 
he entertained scruples which were incomprehensi- 
ble to her. Among the first presents offered her in 
Italy was a box of rare medals, d propos of which 
Bonaparte had so strongly expressed his disapproval 
that she had felt obliged to return them ; after that 
experience she took good care to keep him in igno- 
rance, and whenever he questioned her as to how 
jewels, valuable pictures and priceless antiquities 
came into her possession she accounted for them by 
clever inventions, in which proceeding she was ably 
seconded by her accomplices. 

There were many things of which Bonaparte was 
ignorant, among them the existence of General 



58 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AjSTD HUSBAND. 

Leclerc's assistant, M. Charles, who had remained 
in Milan, and paraded the streets, foppishly arrayed 
in a cavalry uniform, invariably appearing at the 
Palace Serbelloni during its master's absence. M. 
Charles was a well-built, active young man, gay, 
witty and possessed of the most imperturbable assur- 
ance. Josephine claimed that their friendship was 
purely platonic, that the young man was merely a 
pleasant companion who helped her to while away 
the time, but it is certain that he was also the go- 
between between the Creole, who was always in 
need of something, and the shopkeepers who fan- 
cied that the general's wife could be useful to them, 
and he was a lavish contractor, levying gaily upon 
whatever was needed with the jolly inconsequence 
of a soldier foraging. 

Bonaparte finally became suspicious of M. Charles, 
as he had of Murat, and upon some pretext the 
young man was arrested ; upon his release he left 
the army and returned to Paris, where Josephine 
secured him a position with the Compagnie Bodin, 
and he made a large fortune in the provision busi- 
ness. 

M. Charles had been a companion to Josephine's 
taste, some one from her beloved Paris, gay, noisy, 
amusing Paris which she missed so much, and she 
needed some one of his calibre to help her bear the 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AjSTD HUSBAND. 59 

intolerable ennui to which she was a victim. ''I 
am bored to death," she wrote her aunt, and indeed 
she was ; she was bored by the demonstrative affec- 
tion of her young husband, bored at Milan and 
Genoa where she was received like a queen, bored 
at Florence where the Grand Duke welcomed her as 
"My Cousin," at Montebello where she held her 
court, at Passeriano and Venice, bored everywhere 
outside of Paris, yet, when Bonaparte finally turned 
his face homeward, she did not accompany him ; 
she had taken a fancy, so she said, to see Rome, and 
she did not reach the rue Chantereine until her hus- 
band had been a week settled in the house whereon, 
at her orders, one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
francs had been expended in furniture and decora- 
tions. 

Thus, for a caprice, Josephine renounced the 
triumphant journey across Switzerland and Italy, 
during which Bonaparte was everywhere greeted 
with shouts of acclamation, the victorious return to 
France by the side of the man with whose praises 
the whole country was ringing, the man whose 
glorified name she bore. 

Although at that time Napoleon's ardor had 
somewhat abated, his wife was still the only woman 
whom he loved, and he made a public confession of 
his affection, saying to Mme. de Stael, "I adore 



60 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

my wife," he never left her, and was not displeased 
by the report that he was extremely jealous. Jose- 
phine was no longer pretty, she was nearing forty, 
and showed her age, but in Bonaparte's sight she 
had not changed, and, his first passion passed, there 
remained so sweet and tender a memory of his first 
love that throughout his life she exercised over his 
heart and senses an immutable influence. 

NOTE. 

A chronicler, whom I only cite because in such matters it is 
wisest to take note of aU that is said, affirms that on the morning 
when Bonaparte received the oaths of the civic guard, he had in 
his apartment an actress, who was a mistress of a Piedmontese 
general, and whom he had ordered brought there for his amuse- 
ment, and that, the ceremony terminated, he went on foot to the 
Passage des Figini, where he purchased from Manini the jeweUer, 
feminine ornaments valued at a hundred and twenty-eight pounds. 
Another account, that previous to the taking of Milan he had for 
a mistress the Marquise de Bianchi, a woman of remarkable 
beauty, who had called upon him to reclaim twenty-five horses 
belonging to her husband which the French had stolen. After 
the marquise he is accredited with having entertained an opera 
singer named Ricardi, to whom he presented a carriage and six 
horses ; after that, a youthful dancer of seventeen, Mademoiselle 
Therese Campini, and, lastly, the daughter of a furrier. That 
makes five, and none of the adventures, and I have carefully 
investigated the subject, appear to be authentic. 



JJAPOLEON, LOVER AITD HUSBAND. 61 



CHAPTER V. 

MADAME FOURES. 

Bonaparte stood on the deck of the transport 
rOcean as she sailed out of the harbor of Toulon on 
the 29th of April, 1Y98, and watched Josephine until 
distance hid her from his sight. He still loved her 
fondly, if not with the burning ardor of the first 
days of their married life, and admired her as the 
incarnation of grace and elegance, of all that was 
sweet and feminine, and as the first woman who 
had been completely his own and rendered him 
supremely happy. 

It had been settled between them that as soon as 
Egypt was conquered (and he did not doubt that he 
should conquer) he should send a frigate for her and 
she should join him, in the meanwhile she was to 
go to the baths ; but if Josephine was sincere when 
she promised to go to Egypt, the idea of making 
such a journey, of going into an unknown land, soon 
became a bugbear to her, the old Parisian life recon- 
quered her, society and the world resumed their 



62 lyAPOLEOlSr, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 

sway, the attachment she had formed at Milan was 
hard to break, and she lingered in France. 

Reports of her indiscretions reaching Napoleon on 
the passage between Malta and Alexandria, his old 
suspicions were awakened, and he felt he must know 
the truth ; so he called aside those whom he judged 
to be his sincerest friends and least likely to deceive 
him, and, determined to learn what had been said of 
his wife in Italy, pressed them with questions. Men 
were blunt in those days and he was soon fully in- 
formed. 

Josephine's life before he married her did not 
interest him and he asked no questions about it. 
When he had written her from Milan : "Every- 
thing pleases me, even your errors and the trying 
scene which preceded our marriage by about a fort- 
night," he gave the keynote to his character and 
explained his comprehension of love. In his opin- 
ion the right a man has over his wife dated from 
the day they are wed, and from the day when Jose- 
phine de Beauharnais had bound herself to him by 
an oath, accepted his love and professed to share it, 
she belonged wholly to him ; if she had deceived 
him he was done with her. 

The idea of divorce germinated in the hour when 
his eyes were unsealed and the illusion under which 
he had lived was dispelled. Had Bonaparte remained 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 63 

in ignorance of Josephine's infidelities he would 
doubtless have been as faithful in Egypt as he was 
in Italy, but under the circumstances he felt under 
no obligation to restrain himself, and saw no reason 
why he should not lighten the tedium of the hours 
by the distractions, which, a few months previous, 
would have seemed to him like treachery to his wife, 
but which under the existing conditions appeared 
but natural to a man of his years. 

He had a fancy to taste of the far-famed charms 
of Oriental women, as so many other Europeans 
had done, and a number were introduced to him, 
but their obesity was repugnant, for no one was 
ever more easily disgusted, more sensible to odors, 
or more impressionable than Bonaparte. 

He was more fortunate at the Egyptian Tivoli, a 
garden constructed on the model of the Tivoli at 
Paris and managed by a member of the old body- 
guard, once a schoolmate of Bonaparte's at Brienne, 
vrho had obtained permission to follow the army. 
Like its prototype, the Egyptian Tivoli had a club 
with all kinds of games, swings, jugglers, snake- 
charmers and dancers, and its habitues could take 
an ice while listening to the strains of a military 
band. The place would have been pleasant if fre- 
quented by the feminine habitues of similar European 
resorts, but of European women there were few, the 



64 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

only ones who frequented the Tivoli having come 
with the army to Egypt ; for, in spite of the order 
that officer's wives were to remain behind, a few, 
disguised in male attire, managed to evade the scru- 
tiny of the sentinels and make the passage in the 
holds of the transports ; they were mostly hold, auda- 
cious creatures, old campaigners accustomed to a life 
of adventure, and, like the wife of General Verdier, 
able to handle a gun as well as their husband. 

The prettiest among these women was a little 
blonde with dazzling complexion and white teeth, 
by name, Marguerite-Pauline Bellisle. She would 
have been attractive anywhere ; in Egypt she was 
simply adorable. Apprenticed to a milliner at Car- 
cassonne, she had succeeded in marrying her em- 
ployer's nephew. Lieutenant Foures, a good-looking 
young fellow in the 22d chasseurs. In the midst 
of their honeymoon came the order to embark for 
Egypt ; the bride arrayed herself in cavalry uniform 
and sneaked aboard the same vessel which carried 
the groom ; arrived at Cairo she resumed her femi- 
nine habiliments and devoted herself so exclusively 
to her husband that the union was cited as a model 
one. 

During a fSte, given at Esbekieh after a review 
of the troops, Bonaparte's young aides-de-camps, 
Merlin and Eugene de Beauharnais, caught sight 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 65 

of Mme. Foures and admired her so vehemently 
that his attention was directed to her, and he 
inquired who she was ; that evening he saw her 
again at the Tivoli, was introduced and paid her 
marked attention. Afterwards, intermediaries, who 
are to be found everywhere, undertook to smooth 
the way for him. 

Whether from calculation or virtue, it was some 
time before the little woman yielded ; it required 
protestations, letters and rich gifts to overcome her 
scruples, but at last she succumbed. On the I7th 
of December Lieutenant Foures received an order 
to embark, alone this time, on the Chasseur com- 
manded by Captain Laurens, with orders to make 
the coast of Italy and carry dispatches to the 
Directory ; at Paris he was to see Lucien and 
Joseph Bonaparte, and, after receiving such letters 
as they desired to send, to return to Damiette. 
He returned sooner than was expected. 

The day after the lieutenant's departure Bonaparte 
gave a dinner at which Mme. Foures occupied the 
seat of honor. The host was most attentive, but to- 
wards the end of the repast, with apparent awk- 
wardness he upset a carafe of ice-water over her, and 
rising, with many apologies, led the way into an- 
other room, under pretext of assisting her to re- 
arrange her disordered toilet. A chronicler of the 
5 



66 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

times tells us that ^' they paid some regard to ap- 
pearances, but unfortunately their absence was so 
prolonged that the guests who remained at table 
entertained grave doubts as to the genuineness of 
the accident." They had still more cause for doubt 
when a house adjoining the palace Elfi-Bey, the 
general's residence, was hastily furnished, and the 
fair Marguerite stalled therein. 

Madame Foures was scarcely settled in her new 
abode when her husband returned. The Chas- 
seur sailed from France on the 18th of Decem- 
ber, and the following day fell a prisoner to the 
English man-of-war Lion ; the English, who were 
pretty accurately informed regarding what was 
going on in the French army, were malicious 
enough to send Foures back to Cairo on his parole 
not to serve against them during the war. The 
lieutenant, who Marmont vainly essayed to detain 
at Alexandria, arrived in a furious temper, and 
cruelly did his wife expiate her faithlessness ; to 
escape his rage she petitioned for a divorce, which 
was pronounced by a military justice, and on the 
return of the Syrian expedition Lieutenant Foures 
was again ordered to return to France, and an ex- 
press order to expedite his journey was addressed 
to the naval commander. 

After her divorce, Mme. Foures, who had resumed 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 67 

her maiden name of Bellisle, paraded herself as Bona- 
parte's favorite. Richly apparelled, living in most 
luxurious fashion, entertaining generals and doing 
the honors of the palace to some army women, she 
was to be seen everywhere ; sometimes driving with 
Bonaparte, while the aide-de-camp on duty trotted 
by the side of the carriage — Eugene de Beauharnais 
like the rest, — sometimes galloping about in a 
general's uniform, a cocked hat perched on her 
head, and mounted on an Arab horse which had 
been especially broken for her use. '' Here comes 
our general ! " said the soldiers, while those ad' 
dieted to flowery language nicknamed her, "Cleo- 
patra." 

About her neck she habitually wore a long chain 
to which hung her lover's miniature ; it was a 
public liaison at which no one manifested any 
astonishment. 

From the year 1Y92 young women in masculine 
apparel were to be found at all the headquarters of 
the Army of the Republic, sometimes acting as 
aides-de-camp, as did the demoiselles de Fernig, but 
more frequently in another capacity, like Illyrine 
de Morency, Ida Saint-Elme and many others. At 
that epoch a man's costume was to be found in the 
wardrobe of every woman of easy morals, the 
generals' custom of taking their mistresses, and 



68 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

even their wives, on military expeditions was so 
deep-rooted that during the campaigns in Spain, 
and up to the fall of the Empire, hardly one failed 
to follow it ; for example, witness Massena in 1810 
and 1811. Nevertheless Eugene de Beauharnais re- 
belled against his duties as escort to his stepfather's 
mistress, and was excused from that service, though 
he was still retained as aide-de-camp. 

So deeply enamored was Bonaparte of Mar- 
guerite Bellisle, that he did not conceal from her 
his intention of repudiating Josephine ; and even 
meditated marrying her should she bear him a 
child, but as he laughingly remarked : " The little 
idiot does not know enough to have a baby," which 
being repeated to her drew forth the retort : " Who 
knows if I am the idiot ? " 

During the Syrian expedition Marguerite remained 
at Cairo, and Bonaparte wrote her the tenderest 
letters, and when, after Aboukir, the general em- 
barked on the Murion to return to France, he left 
orders that the ci-devant Mme. Foures was to re- 
join him as soon as possible, and that she should 
sail by the first armed vessel. 

General Kleber, however, did not take that view of 
the situation. He had succeeded Bonaparte in com- 
mand, and doubtless he regarded La Bellilote as 
one of the perquisites of the position ; at all events 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 69 

he threw obstacle after obstacle in the way of her 
departure, and it was owing to Desgenettes that she 
finally embarked on a neutral vessel, the America, 
in company with Junot and some of the savants 
of the Egyptian expedition, Rigel, Lallemand and 
Corancez, Jr. Unfortunately the America fell into 
the hands of the English, and Mme. Foures was not 
released from captivity and able to return to France 
until too late. 

When she reached her native land the reconcilia- 
tion between Bonaparte and Josephine was an ac- 
complished fact, and her lover metamorphosed into 
the First Consul of the Eepublic, a position which 
rendered it incumbent upon him to set the country 
an example of a dignified and upright life. It is 
claimed that Bonaparte forbade Mme. Foures coming 
to Paris ; if so, his injunctions were disregarded, 
for she came and showed herself in company with 
her friends at " Les Frangais" and other theatres ; 
the Consul, however, firmly refused to see her, but 
gave her as much money as she demanded. On the 
11th of March, 1811, he presented her with sixty 
thousand francs out of the appropriation for theatres, 
he bought a chateau for her in the suburbs of Paris, 
and arranged a marriage between her and M. Henri 
de Ranchoup, an emigre, an ex-infantry ofi&cer, and 
the scion of a good Auvergne family ; the marriage 



70 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

took place at Bellevile in 1800, and the husband 
received as a wedding-present the vice-consulship of 
Santander, from which he was promoted, in 1810, 
to the consulate of Gothenburg. 

In spite of her husband's duties, Mme. de Ran- 
choup appears to have been seldom absent from 
Paris ; she was there in 1811, and still there in 1813. 
In 1814 she was well known in society and visited 
the Baroness Girard, the Countess de Lucy, and the 
Baroness Brayer ; she went in for literary work, and 
had published by Delaunay a two-volumed novel en- 
titled " Lord Wentworth." The romance of her life, 
however, is far more interesting. She painted also, 
and was not without talent if one can judge by the 
charming portrait she made of herself, wherein she 
appears pulling the leaves from a daisy ; it was a 
singular idea to thus represent herself essaying to 
read her fate by the aid of a flower. Alas, for her ! 
while searching for '^ passionately " she found " not 
at all." The portrait represents a charming woman 
with a vivacious face under a mass of short, babyish 
curls, slight, graceful figure and really beautiful 
arms, and it atones in gracefulness for what it lacks 
in technique. 

Towards 1816 Mme. de Ranchoup came to an 
open rupture with her husband, sold her furniture, 
which was valuable, and departed for Brazil in 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 71 

company with an ex-officer of the Guard, Jean- 
Auguste Bellard. It was rumored in Paris that, 
having realized on her property, she proposed to re- 
new her relations with Napoleon and aid him to 
escape from St. Helena. She was not thinking of 
such a thing, having grown to detest the Emperor, 
and to affect royalistic opinions. When Mme. 
d'Abrantes published her memoirs she mentioned 
this rumor, praising Mme. de Eanchoup highly for 
her loyalty and devotion ; but the latter protested, 
as such a statement rendered her a suspicious char- 
acter in the eye of the police, who, knowing her 
to be an old friend of Bonaparte's, were inclined 
to keep an eye upon her and who watched her 
narrowly when she returned from Brazil with 
Bellard in 1825. 

In reality her journeys between Brazil and France 
were taken simply to secure to herself a compe- 
tency ; she took out merchandise, which she ex- 
changed for rosewood and mahogany, these she 
brought back and sold in France, returning again to 
South America with furniture ; oscillating in this 
fashion between the Old World and the New until 
1837, when she settled in Paris. She continued writ- 
ing, and published another novel, ^' Une Chatelaine 
du XII. Siecle," and installed in a modest little 
apartment in the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque, surrounded 



72 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

by monkeys and birds, she led a cheerful, contented 
existence until the 18th of March, 1869, when she 
died at the age of 92 years. She retained all her 
faculties unimpaired to the last ; she wrote, played on 
the harp, and painted ; she bought pictures, kept up 
her friendships with the women she had known in 
other days and even made new friends, among 
others, Mile. Rosa Bonheur. 

Mme. de Ranchoup's taste in art is discerned by 
the numerous pictures with which she endowed 
the museum at Blois (to which city she was at- 
tracted by her friend the Baroness de Wimpffen). 
Many of these pictures which claim to be Raphael's, 
Titian's, Leonard's, and Boucher's, are really only 
copies ; some canvases are attributed to Prud'hon, 
others to Reynolds, Terburg, Jean Meel, Carlo 
Maratti, Jeaurat, and there are also two modern 
pictures, one a Rosa Bonheur, the other a Compte- 
Calix ; infant Jesus', Bohemians, Venuses, Cupids, 
Psyches and Hermits, abound ; but not one recalls 
the days in Egypt, the palace of Elfi-Bey, and the 
man who played the most important role in her life. 
Before she died, Mme. de Ranchoup, or the Countess 
de Ranchoup, as she preferred to be called, burnt 
every letter which had been written her by Bonaparte. 
It appears as though she wished to annihilate every 
memory of the love to which she owes her place in 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 73 

history ; that youthful, sensual love which had, 
nevertheless, an ingenuous side, and in which, above 
all, we see how imperious was ISTapoleon's desire for 
a child ; a child of his own, to whom he could trans- 
mit his name and his glory. 



74 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RECONCILIATION. 

Josephine was dining at the Luxemburg, a 
guest of Gohier, president of the Directory, when 
the news that Bonaparte had landed at Frejus was 
announced : it was totally unexpected and almost 
overwhelmed her, for she had well-nigh forgotten 
that he existed, had seemingly overlooked the possi- 
bility of his return, and arranged her life to please 
herself, her conduct closely resembling that of a 
widow no longer inconsolable. 

While in Egypt the husband meditated a divorce, 
in France the wife was making her repudiation 
imperative ; having broken off her relations with 
Barras, whose influence was declining and whose 
power was weakening, she did everything to ingrati- 
ate herself with the Gohiers, husband and wife, 
from the moment he held an important government 
position. 

Gohier was a native of Eennes, belonged to the 
middle-class, and had been the minister of Justice 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 75 

during the Reign of Terror ; he it was who drew up 
the legal formulas which Fouquier-Tinville enforced ; 
he was the casuiste of the guillotine. Nothing 
gives an air of austerity like the hunt after judicial 
expediencies, it is the indispensable mask which 
hides the law's prevarications, and Gohier affected 
a Spartan-like integrity and sternness. 

Because of his austerity he was elected a member 
of the Directory, and because of it also he made a 
recruit of Josephine, who confided to him her pas- 
sion for M. Charles, and was counselled by him to 
apply for a divorce in order to espouse her lover. 

Josephine, though tempted, hesitated ; but in the 
meantime, because of M. Charles, she quarrelled 
with her brothers-in-law, Joseph and Lucien, who 
were the most violent adversaries of the Gohier 
party, and inspired their life-long enmity. 

On the Bonaparte side were all Napoleon's friends, 
those who waited, hoped and counted upon his re- 
turn to re-organize France, while the Gohier party 
comprised his bitterest enemies, Bernadotte, Cham- 
pionnet, Jourdin, Moulin, all the political generals. 
The Jacobins had pushed forward Gohier, who was 
a republican and a civilian, solely that they might 
encompass the downfall of the conqueror. The 
more hostile Gohier was to Bonaparte, the better it 
suited Josephine, and, in order to secure to herself 



76 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

the protection and support of the Gohier family, she 
schemed to marry her daughter Hortense to their 
son ; planning to sacrifice the poor child (whose 
happiness was always a secondary consideration) if 
it proved to her interest to do so. 

This scheme was progressing finely, and they 
were dining en famille, when the startling news 
that Bonaparte had disembarked and was on the 
way to Paris came upon them like a thunderbolt. 

It was clear that he would not have come in so 
secret and unheralded a fashion save for grave 
reasons ; Gohier realized that a crisis was at hand, 
and Josephine that she had not a moment to lose if 
she would save herself, for, seeing a struggle for 
supremacy, she meant to be on the winning side. 
Gohier might yet be a useful friend, but the most 
important thing was to regain her empire over 
Bonaparte. With this end in view, she instantly 
determined to go to meet him, and announced that 
determination to Gohier. " Do not fear. President," 
she said, as she took leave of him, ' ' that Bonaparte 
comes with designs fatal to liberty, but it is wiser 
to prevent traitors from gaining his ear." 

She hurriedly ordered post-horses and set out ; 
this time without Louise Compoint, or Fortune ; 
and, unincumbered by baggage, flew to meet her hus- 
band. Her plan was to throw herself into his 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 77 

arms, rekindle his burnt-out passion, and win him 
back, and by thus avoiding all explanations return 
with him to Paris, and be at his side to receive the 
chagrined Bonapartes who would again hesitate to 
speak, or, if they dared, would find they spoke to 
deaf ears. 

While Josephine was urging on her postilions, 
and eagerly scanning the horizon for the travelling- 
carriage she so wished to meet, Bonaparte arrived 
in Paris by the Bourbonnais route ; learning this 
she hastily retraced her steps, but she had lost three 
days, during which Bonaparte had interrogated his 
brothers, sisters and mother, who confirmed the 
gossip he had heard in Egypt, and cemented his 
determination to obtain a divorce. There was no 
longer any doubt as to what Josephine's conduct 
had been in Milan, or of the life she had led dur- 
ing the past seventeen months. It seems that the 
Bonapartes, either out of regard for her or their 
brother, did not tell all they knew, possibly they 
did not know everything ; however, what they said 
sufficed ; Napoleon's decision was taken, and the 
whole family approved it. 

In vain did the friends, to whom he recounted his 
troubles, remonstrate and point out to him that the 
acclamations with which the people had greeted his 
return proved that they looked to him for their 



78 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

salvation, that they did not expect a scandal, that 
he must wait until he had done his duty to his 
country before he dismissed his wife, that to adver- 
tise his domestic troubles was to lay himself open 
to ridicule, and that in France ridicule kills ; to all 
Bonaparte turned a deaf ear. 

"She must go," he said, "no matter what people 
say ; they will gossip for a day or two, then all will 
be forgotten." No consideration could soften or 
touch him, no interests were great enough to over- 
throw his just indignation. To avoid a meeting 
wherein he feared he might be moved to pity— for 
he realized the hold Josephine had over his senses, 
and would not trust himself to meet her — he de- 
posited with the concierge her jewels and effects ; 
he then made an appointment with his brothers for 
the following morning, intending to settle the last 
formalities, and alone in his room on the first floor 
of the house, awaited their arrival. 

Josephine, half frantic, at last reached the rue 
Chantereine ; it was a desperate game she was about 
to play, and her chance of success was poor, for her 
cause was already half lost. 

During her journey, for perhaps the first time in 
her life, Josephine had reflected upon her position and 
the horror of it had burst upcn her, forcing her to 
see that if she did not succeed in seeing, and re-con- 



NAPOLEOlSr, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 79 

quering her husband, she had nowhere to go. Men 
Hke M. Charles were well enough for a pastune, but 
how could she have been so stupid as to permit her 
relations with him to have become a scandal and 
for his sake to jeopardize her best interests ? That, 
the affair with Barras and others, the Bonapartes 
antagonized, debts everywhere — what was to be- 
come of her ? Her head was in a whirl. Not realiz- 
ing the value of money, she had bought continually 
on credit, fancying that all her bills were settled 
when she had only paid something on account, and 
she dragged after her then, as she did during the Em- 
pire and up to her last hour, a train of creditors who 
always gave her fresh occasion for expense and whose 
bills she increased without a thought of the day of 
reckoning. When payment became due she wept 
and sobbed, lost her head, resorted to every possible 
expedient, called on God and the devil to help her, 
and, when she succeeded in gaining a little time, 
thought herself saved. This was how she stood at 
that moment ; to her tradespeople alone, it is said, she 
owed twelve hundred thousand francs, and it is not 
unlikely, for that was the usual sum of her indebted- 
ness. She had purchased in the canton of Glabbaix, 
in the department of Dyle, national bonds to the 
amount of one million, one hundred and ninety- 
five thousand francs, and still owed two-thirds on 



80 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

it ; the other third was to have been furnished 
by her aunt, Mme. Renaudin, then become Mme. de 
Beauharnais, but she had not a penny and could not 
fulfill her promise. She had bought of citizen 
Lecoulteux the lands and demesne of Malmaison 
for two hundred and twenty-five thousand francs ; 
thirty-seven thousand, five hundred and sixteen 
francs for furniture, utensils and provisions, and 
nine thousand, one hundred and ten francs for 
rights and privileges ; on this she had paid for the 
furniture with "the price of diamonds and jewels 
belonging to her : " but the rest was demandable, 
and who was to pay it ? 

Josephine knew she might claim that the general, 
who had visited Malmaison before his departure 
for Egypt, had offered two hundred and fifty 
thousand francs for the property, and that that 
was about the sum which she had agreed to pay 
for it ; but after having seen Malmaison Bona- 
parte had seen Ris, and had favorably considered its 
purchase, and finally his choice had fallen upon a 
place in Bourgogne ; moreover, he had not given 
her power of attorney. His brother Joseph was his 
business manager ; it was through him that Jose- 
phine received her annual allowance of forty thou- 
sand francs, and to Joseph alone had Napoleon com- 
municated his projects. The latter had advanced 



KAPOLEOISr, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 81 

fifteen thousand francs on account to Lecoulteux ; 
the receipt, however, which bore the date of lYth 
Messidor, year VII., was in the general's name, and 
Josephine therefore still owed fifteen thousand 
francs, because she had stipulated at marriage for 
the separation of property. 

Nothing belonged to her ; not even the hotel in 
the rue de la Victoire, for it had been bought and 
paid for by Bonaparte ; all that she owned were the 
spoils of her Italian campaign, which she was pleased 
to display, and which one of her contemporaries tells 
us was worthy to have figured in " A Thousand and 
One Nights. " She still possessed pictures, statues 
and antiques, but what were they against what she 
owed ; and what did they amount to in comparison 
to what she was losing ? 

Thus Josephine was again in desperate straits and 
no longer at an age when she could hope to repair 
her fortunes by a lucky marriage. The years had 
left their traces, her figure remained supple and 
graceful, but her face had faded ; a Creole, married 
at sixteen, matured at twelve (for Tercier claims to 
have courted her in 1776) she was much older than 
a northern woman at the same period of life, and, 
looking the situation in the face, she clung to the 
hope that her husband would see her and be touched. 

She went to the rue Chantereine, forced her way 



82 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

into the house and to the door of the room in which 
Bonaparte had intrenched himself ; but she knocked 
and implored vainly ; finally she threw herself upon 
her knees^ and the sounds of her sobs and lamenta- 
tions rang through the house. She remained there 
for hours endeavoring to make him open the door ; 
at last, utterly discouraged and exhausted, she was 
about to depart when her maid, Agathe Eible, 
thought of an expedient and begging her mistress 
to stop where she was, rushed for Eugene and Hor- 
tense, and returning with them had them kneel be- 
side their mother and join their supplications with 
hers ; at last the door opened, Bonaparte appeared, 
and without uttering a word held out his arms to 
his wife ; his eyes were suffused with tears, and his 
face bore evidence of the terrible strain he had 
undergone. 

It was no half pardon which was extended 
to Josephine, but forgiveness, utter and complete. 
Bonaparte had the wonderful faculty of forgetful- 
ness, and once he had forgiven a fault and renewed 
his confidence, was able to erase from the tablets of 
his mind the faults or crimes which it had pleased 
him to condone, so that it was as though they had 
never been committed ; not only did he forgive his 
wife, but, more wonderful, he ignored her accom- 
plices ; he never deprived one of them of life or 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 83 

liberty, did nothing to impede their success ; never- 
theless, when, by chance, he encountered certain of 
them he became suddenly extremely pale. He ar- 
gued that those men were not to blame, but that the 
fault was his, for he had not taken good care of his 
wife, that she had not been properly guarded, but 
left too long alone and unprotected, and so another 
had been able to penetrate into his harem. It was 
natural, the necessity of sex ordered that man should 
be insistent, that woman should succumb ; it was 
the law of nature. Bonaparte reasoned that if the 
erring wife was no longer beloved, she should be re- 
pudiated ; if she was still dear, the only thing to do 
was to take her back ; reproaches were senseless. 
Before an accomplished fact Bonaparte yielded, he 
accepted things as they were and people as he found 
them, and he did not exact of women a virginity 
which they did not possess. This is less French than 
Oriental in his nature, but so it was. Knowing, or 
fancying that he did, what to believe regarding 
the morality and virtue of women, convinced that 
marital security could be ensured only by watchful- 
ness, he determined to take his precautions and to 
make it a rule that no man, under whatever pretext, 
was to remain alone with his wife, and to keep her 
constantly under surveillance. If this rule was not 
strictly adhered to with Josephine it was because he 



84 NAPOLEON, LOVER AISTD HUSBAND. 

no longer hoped for offspring, and we shall see later 
how he managed with his second wife. 

Josephine, triumphed over the Bonapartes, who 
having deplored the marriage, had desired, schemed 
for, and almost achieved a rupture. She made Na- 
poleon contribute to her triumph, for on the follow- 
ing morning, when Lucien, the most ardent advo- 
cate of the divorce, called at an early hour in obedi- 
ence to his brother's summons, he was ushered into 
Josephine's bed-chamber, where Napoleon was still 
in bed. The family realized that, having pardoned 
so much, Bonaparte would not wrangle over a ques- 
tion of money, and that it was useless to talk of his 
wife's debts, so for a time they subsided. 

On the 21st of November he paid the one million, 
one hundred and ninety-five thousand francs due on 
the national bonds of the department of Dyle, later 
they served as a dowry for Marie- Adelaide, com- 
monly called Adele, the natural daughter of M. 
de Beauharnais, for whom Josephine arranged a 
marriage with Frangois-Michel-Auguste Lecomte, 
captain of infantry, and appointed collector at 
Sarlat immediately after the marriage. Napoleon 
also paid what was still owing on Malmaison, a 
bagatelle of two hundred and twenty-five thousand 
francs, and settled the tradespeople's accounts, 
amounting to one million, two hundred thousand 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 85 

francs ; these he took the trouble to investigate, and 
it repaid him, for by deducting charges for goods 
which had never been dehvered and righting over- 
charges he reduced the sum exactly one-half. 

Josephine had cause for reflection ; a husband who 
would thus pay debts to the amount of two million 
francs was a protector such as is not often found, 
and certainly one for whom a woman could well 
afford to make some sacrifices ; she did so, and her 
apparent conduct up to the moment of her divorce 
gave her enemies no cause for gossip ; she herself 
said that she was too afraid of losing her position 
to be indiscreet. She proved her gratitude to the 
Gohiers, for on the evening of the lYth of Novem- 
ber she sent them an invitation to breakfast with 
the First Consul and herself on the following day, 
and, Gohier declining, she urged his wife to press 
upon him the acceptance of an important position 
under the new government. Gohier, always austere, 
indignantly refused ; but when, after pouting for 
two years, he solicited the First Consul's favor, it 
was Josephine who obtained for him the position of 
commissary-general at Amsterdam, where he was 
so well contented that he remained for ten years, 
and would doubtless have passed the rest of his life 
if, in 1810, the post had not been abolished ; it is 
said that then he refuged to go to New York, but 



86 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

he later accepted a pension which was paid him 
during the restoration ; nevertheless, he was a good 
republican to the end of his days and stipulated for 
a civil interment. 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 87 



CHAPTER Vn. 

LA GRASSINI. 

Bonaparte had been able to forgive and forget, but 
he could not, in 1799, rekindle the passion he had felt 
for Josephine in his early manhood when, inexpe- 
rienced in love or life, he had been intoxicated by the 
possession of a woman of rank. With Mme. Foures 
he had tasted the charm and freshness of budding 
womanhood, and the comparison forced itself upon 
his memory ; he had enjoyed the change, and had 
no longer either the desire, or the will to remain a 
faithful husband. 

The relations which he wished Josephine to bear 
him in the future were rather those of a friend and 
confidante than a wife ; he wished for a wise friend 
to whom, when in an expansive mood, he could tell 
some of the thoughts which agitated him, from 
whom he could seek advice regarding a society which 
he had had no time to study, and for a tender nurse 
who, should illness befall him, would give him 
almost maternal care, who would listen to, condole 



88 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

with, and coddle him ; upon whose bosom he could 
lay his aching head and be comforted as if he were 
a child. He wished her to be mistress as well as 
friend, a mistress with whom he need be under no 
restraint, who without apparent ennui would accept 
all his moods, cheer his melancholy or share his 
pleasures ; one who would always be ready for a 
journey, who would wait for but never keep him 
waiting, who, while not sharing his feverish activity 
would sympathize with all his undertakings ; who 
would drive with him behind the four horses he 
delighted to handle, follow his hunting expeditions, 
accompany him to the theatre, have a smile always 
on her lips and a gentle answer at her tongue's 
end. 

For Josephine he reserved a special place in his 
political plans ; France, which he planned to reor- 
ganize, lacked, according to him, two of its primary 
elements, the nobility and the clergy ; he believed 
that he could rally the latter, and counted upon his 
wife to draw the former. Not taking into account 
the mysterious hierarchy to which the old society of 
France had submitted, the invisible lines which had 
divided it into diverse coteries, and the impassable 
gulf which separated them, he viewed it as a whole. 
Josephine, he thought, had been of it, and could 
draw it back to him ; she would be one with the 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 89 

Emigres, with the people of the old court and the 
nobility, with all those who belonged to the old 
regime, a natural intermediary between himself and 
them. Josephine could dispense benefits, distribute 
favors, repair injustices ; little by little she could 
draw from the camp of the enemy those whom 
he wished to see re-enter the country ; later she 
would serve as a link between what remained 
of the old regime and the new one he was build- 
ing up. 

Certainly, it was a fine and cleverly conceived role, 
and Josephine was apparently well qualified to play 
it ; she had the necessary ease, elegance and grace 
of manner, possessed the happy faculty of speaking 
the right word in the right place, was exceptionally 
graceful and tactful in proffering a gift, and had a 
charming fashion of receiving people ; she was pos- 
sessed also of wonderful tact in address, which en- 
abled her to approach people of all ranks and appear 
at ease in all company ; what she lacked were those 
relations with the nobility upon which Bonaparte 
counted ; those she had formed since the revolution 
would not serve his purpose, but would indeed have 
been injurious to the new government had not the 
First Consul from the first signified his intention of 
sundering them. 

In the beginning Josephine found herself isolated, 



90 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

but, in proportion as Bonaparte rose, obstacles fell 
away, social distinctions melted before him, and 
ambitions woke. In foreign lands and in France 
alike people set their wits about to discover, if by 
any lucky chance, they were even distantly connected 
with either the Beauharnais or Tascher families ; 
they inquired into remote alliances and distant kin- 
ships until then unacknowledged, had recourse to 
inferiors and old family servants for information, 
and ere long a current set in which swept all the old 
titled, office-seeking, soliciting sycophants either 
towards the yellow salon of the Tuileries or the 
stucco drawing-room at Malmaison. 

It must not be supposed that this state of affairs 
was due to Josephine, that it manifested itself 
because she was born a Tascher and married a Beau- 
harnais ; it existed solely because she was Mme. 
Bonaparte ; people flocked around her because she 
was close to the master, the satellite of the planet 
from which they hoped for light, and they would 
have swarmed to toady her just the same no matter 
what her name, origin or past had been. Never- 
theless, Josephine, perhaps sincerely, believed herself 
an important factor in the movement, and strove to 
impress Bonaparte with the invaluable service she 
rendered him, and, strange to relate, she succeeded 
in convincing him ; as he firmly believed that he 



NAPOLEOlSr, LOVEE AKD HUSBAND. 91 

had conquered the clergy, he could easily belie v^e 
that his wife had won the nobility. 

What woman would not be proud to be raised to 
such a position, who would not have been satisfied 
with missions so diverse and so great ? Had not the 
Consul the right to think that Josephine, with the 
memory of her infidelities and of all that had been 
forgiven her before her eyes, realizing the disparity 
in their ages and remembering the weaknesses to 
which she herself had yielded, would let pass amours 
which could neither detract from her position nor 
from her husband's affection, and that from fear 
lest Bonaparte be involved in a scandal and realizing 
what was due their position, she would always be 
extremely complaisant ? 

Josephine, unfortunately, failed to see matters in 
this light ; not because she had become enamored of 
her husband's physical charms, nor because gratitude 
and admiration of his character had roused in her 
a love so profound that it rendered her jealous, but 
because she thought of her own interests, of her 
position. She reasoned that if Bonaparte detached 
himself from her physically he would end by divorc- 
ing her, and she lived in a state of perpetual appre- 
hension ; she watched him, and debased herself to 
set hired spies upon his track ; she bored him with 
scenes, tears and hysterics, made a confidajit of 



92 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

every one who would listen to her, and, in default of 
realities, imagined events which she recounted as 
facts, related incidents she would assert she had 
seen, and to the truth of which she would swear if 
needful. 

The Consul's first gallantries, however, were not 
very serious. A day or two after his triumphal en- 
try into Milan, the 14th or 15th Prairial, a concert was 
improvised, where, for his benefit, Italy's greatest 
artists, Marchesi and Grassini, sang. The latter was 
twenty-seven years of age (for she was born at 
Varese in 17Y3), and she was no longer in appearance 
what she had been two years previous when, enthu- 
siastically infatuated by Bonaparte, she had essayed 
to attract his attention and win him from Josephine. 
She was still handsome, but it was a style of beauty 
commonly seen in the streets of Italy ; her figure 
was already over-developed, her face with its large 
features and black eyebrows, framed in thick black 
hair, looked a trifle heavy ; her dark flashing eyes 
and swarthy skin gave her the appearance of a 
woman of amorous temperament, which, it appears, 
was deceptive. She had no end of lovers, not from 
sordid motives, for she was not mercenary, but 
resulting from mutual contempt and weariness ; 
there was not one of them whom she had not pro- 
claimed an angel at the beginning of the intimacy, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 93 

but her honeymoons waned ere they had passed the 
first quarter. 

Although Grassini's physical beauty was already 
on the decline, her artistic career was at its height ; 
she was not a great musician, nor deeply versed in 
the principles of her art, but she was art itself ; her 
contralto voice, always the most sympathetic of 
voices, was pure and smooth throughout its entire 
register. Hearing her, one listened not only to a 
great singer but a muse ; no one phrased as she did, 
no one interpreted so understandingly grand opera 
(in opera bouffe she was wretched), no one deployed 
such amplitude of voice, such depth of expression 
in tragic roles, or could so sway an audience. 

Music was the only one of all the arts — above all, 
vocal music — for which Bonaparte had a particular 
taste ; the rest he protected, from policy, because he 
considered it incumbent upon his position and wished 
his name handed down to posterity as a patron of 
the arts ; music alone he thoroughly appreciated, 
enjoyed and loved for itself and the pleasurable sen- 
sations it evoked ; music calmed his nerves, charmed 
away melancholy, warmed his heart and set him 
a- dreaming. It matters little that he sung false, did 
not know a note and could not carry an air, he was 
so moved by music that he was carried out of him- 
self, and that proves a higher appreciation of it 



94 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

than is felt by many claiming to be musicians. He 
valued fine singing so highly that he decorated 
the soprano Crescentini with the order of the Iron 
Crown. 

In Grassini, it was less the woman than the song- 
stress that captivated him. For two years Bona- 
parte had dwelt in her thoughts and her resistance 
was naturally not protracted. The day after the 
concert she breakfasted at the Consul's apartment, 
Berthier making a third, and it was settled that she 
should precede Bonaparte to Paris, where she should 
fill an engagement at the " Theatre de la Repub- 
lique et des Arts," and this arrangement was re- 
counted in the fourth bulletin of the army in Italy ; 
doubtless with the view of disarming Josephine's 
umbrage at the prima-donna's arrival. 

The article read as follows : " The First Consul and 
the commander-in-chief (Berthier) attended a con- 
cert on the 15th Prairial, which, though improvised, 
proved very agreeable : Italian music has ever new 
charms. The celebrated Billington, Grassini and 
Marchesi are expected in Milan, and we are informed 
that they are shortly going to Paris to give concerts 
there." 

This notice was printed for Josephine's benefit. 
Bonaparte dissimulated his infidelity behind a 
change of dates, and masked behind the name of 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 95 

Billington, the only person in whom he took any 
interest. 

At Milan, during the days which preceded Ma- 
rengo, he spent every hour which he could spare in 
listening to Grassini. He was possessed by her 
marvellous voice, and held it to be the finest trophy 
of the campaign, and he wished that she should cel- 
ebrate his triumphant return to France and sing 
his victories. He desired Grassini to be in Paris by 
the 14:th of July for the fete of " La Concorde " and 
that she and the tenor Bianchi should sing an Ital- 
ian duet. With this object in view he despatched 
an order to the minister of the Interior, desiring the 
composition of a song celebrating ' ' The deliverance 
of the Cisalpine and the glory of our arms, a fine 
poem in Italian," insisted the Consul, ''set to good 
music. 

Twenty-three days later, in the church of Les In- 
valides, the Temple of Mars, which was magnifi- 
cently decorated, official France assembled in solemn 
state to celebrate the nation's victories, and when 
the First Consul had taken his seat upon the plat- 
form, Grassini and Bianchi sang their duets, for 
there were two Italian numbers sung in succession. 
"Who could better," inquired the Moniteur, "cel- 
ebrate the victory of Marengo than those to whom 
it assured peace and prosperity ? " 



96 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

It was audacious of Bonaparte to have his mis- 
tress sing at an official fete, and had the world sus- 
pected their relations there would certainly have 
been a clamor raised, but it seems their connection 
was then unknown, even Josephine being unsus- 
picious, for she placed reliance in the article in the 
army bulletin ; moreover, the caprice, the physical 
caprice at least, was not of long duration. Before 
leaving Milan, Grassini, intoxicated by a success 
long and vainly desired, imagined that she was 
going to play a great role, not only in the theatre 
but in politics ; she fancied that she had a great in- 
fluence over her lover, and, being naturally good- 
natured, she left Italy laden with petitions from her 
compatriots. 

Bonaparte was not a man who permitted any one 
to talk business when he desired to talk love, and 
Grassini bored him ; moreover, he exacted that she 
should not show herself anywhere, but should live 
like a recluse in a little house in the rue Chante- 
reine ; this did not suit the lady at all, for she had 
dreamed of quite a different existence, of a liaison 
d Vitalienne, which would have advertised at once 
her name, her person and her talent, and as fidelity 
was not her forte she was bored to death ; there 
was not even a theatre open to her, for her terrible 
jargon closed the door of the opera, and at that 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 97 

time there was no Italian Opera in Paris, so she 
took to herself a lover in the person of Eode, the 
violinist. Bonaparte learned of her infidelity and 
severed his relations with her, hut whatever fear 
Eode may have felt for his subsequent artistic 
career, neither he nor Grassini were made to suffer ; 
twice even the Consul accorded them the Theatre de 
la Republique for their concerts, the second of which 
was particularly hrilliant, the box-receipts amount- 
ing to thirteen thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
eight francs and seventy-five centimes, and the ac- 
count given of it by Suard in the Moniteur being 
almost lyric. 

Later Giuseppina Grassini returned to the wander- 
ing life of a star, and came and went between Ber- 
lin, London, Milan, Genoa and Paris ; she was feted 
and flattered everywhere, and made engagements 
for three thousand pounds sterling for five months ; 
nevertheless, when she passed through Paris and 
knocked at the door of the private apartment of the 
Tuileries it was always opened to her. The inter- 
views led to nothing, but they distressed Josephine 
greatly. " I have learned," she wrote to one of her 
confidantes, ''that Grassini has been ten days in 
Paris, and it seems that it is she who causes my 
present sufferings. I assure you, my dear, that if 
I were in the least to blame I would frankly admit 



98 NAPOLEON", LOVER AKD HUSBAND. 

it ; you would do well to send Julie (her friend's 
maid) to watch and see if Grassini calls, try also to 
find out where the woman lives," 

The whole nature of Josephine is revealed in 
this letter. What could Grassini matter to her ? 
Did she not understand that there was no serious 
tie between the Italian and Bonaparte ; that it was 
only one of those meetings wherein memory plays 
a greater part than desire ? No, she had to pry and 
spy and address her complaints and her lamentations 
to a woman whom the Consul disliked and whom 
he had almost turned out of the Tuileries : such was 
Josephine. 

She seems, however, to have calmed down in 1807, 
for when they were organizing the " chamber 
music," Napoleon recalled Grassini to Paris and 
offered the prima-donna, uniquely to the Prima- 
donna, a fixed salary of thirty-six thousand francs, 
fifteen thousand francs of annual gratuities, with- 
out counting gifts, and fifteen thousand francs 
pension on her retirement ; besides which she was to 
have the use of the Opera or Les Italiens once 
each winter in which to give herself a benefit ; and 
was to use her vacations, if she chose, in travelling 
from city to city, advertising herself with her 
sonorous title as " Prima-donna to his Majesty the 
Emperor." 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 99 

This title, however, did not serve to defend 
Grassini from the bandits who swarmed on the roads, 
and on the nineteenth of October, 1807, near Ron vrai 
on the confines of Yonne and the Cote d'Or, her 
travelHng carriage was attacked by four deserters 
from a Swiss regiment and the poor creature was 
outraged, stripped and maltreated ; but two days 
afterwards justice befell the aggressors and the 
Emperor admitted to the Legion of Honor M. 
Durandeau, commander of the national guard at 
Viteaux, who had slain two of the bandits and 
arrested a third. It is said that Grassini implored 
the bandits, who had taken a miniature of Bonaparte 
set in^ diamonds, to keep the jewels, but to return 
the miniature. It is recounted that, in a drawing- 
room where great indignation was expressed over 
Crescentini being decorated with the Iron Crown, 
Grassini exclaimed: "Ah, but you forget her 
wound ! " (referring to the former's chagrin afc 
her own appointment as first prima-donna to his 
Majesty.) A man of the world of that time tells us 
that La Grassini was clever and witty, spoke slangy 
French with a strong Italian accent, and that her 
habitual outspokenness gave her a reputation for 
sincerity and honesty. 

Such was the situation from 180Y to 1814. Grassini 
received from the Emperor alone seventy thousand 



100 NAPOLEON, LOVEE. AND HUSBAND. 

francs a year, which was more than she received from 
the public, for the latter became less enthusiastic 
with time, as was plainly shown at Les Italiens in 
November of 1813 when, with great ado, Horace et 
les Curiaces of Cimarosa was produced ; but she 
always achieved a success at the ^'Theatre de la 
Cour," and received the same consideration from the 
Emperor, 

Gratitude was not one of La Grassini's virtues, 
nor were memory and affection characteristics of 
hers, for, after Napoleon's banishment to Saint 
Helena, she attached herself to his conqueror the 
Duke of Wellington and deployed her charms of 
voice and person for his benefit. 

The '^Iron Duke" had a fancy for that which 
Napoleon had praised, and it is related that he asked 
David to paint his portrait, to which request the 
artist replied ' ' that he only painted historical sub- 
jects." 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 101 



OHAPTER VIII. 

FOOTLIGHT BEAUTIES. 

Bonapaete's infatuation for Grassini was transi- 
tory, and Josephine's jealousy of brief duration; 
and although other actresses visited the Consul's 
private apartments in the Tuileries, their visits need 
not have caused her any great anxiety, for they 
were persons of mediocre virtue to whom Bonaparte 
could not become seriously attached, and of whom 
he simply required that they be pretty and com- 
plaisant during the few hours he passed in their com- 
pany; but it sufficed that such callers came to the 
Tuileries, and the wife prowled about the staircases 
and corridors, candle in hand, with the hope of 
surprising them and enacting some scene which 
would put her husband plainly in the wrong. 

Had it not been for Josephine, these passing fancies 
of the great conqueror would never have come to 
light ; it was she who discovered and told of them ; 
but, commonplace as these brief romances were, 
there is sufficient reason for reviewing them as 



102 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

they reveal certain phases of his character which 
might be vainly searched for elsewhere. 

Aside from Grassini, and perhaps Mme. Branchu, 
who was so homely that to accuse him of a weakness 
for her would seem absurd were it not possible that 
the dilettante in him might have rendered her attrac- 
tive because of the wonderful talent she displayed 
in tragic opera ; he never affected the queens of 
the lyric stage. 

No dancers visited the Tuileries, although it was 
the moment when dancers were in vogue ; when 
Clotide was supported by Prince Pignatelli, who 
allowed her one hundred thousand francs a month, 
and was outbid by Admiral Mazaredo, who offered 
her four hundred thousand ; when Bigottini was 
showered with favors from all sides, and thereby 
accumulated a fortune for her numerous progeny, 
for whom in later years she arranged advantageous 
marriages. No comediennes, neither Mile. Mars, 
who was not at all pretty when she made her debut, 
nor Mile. Devienne, the incomparable soubrette 
whose bright face betrayed her cleverness and wit, 
but who was unable to utter a word in answer to 
the flattering speech the Emperor once made her 
when en route for a hunt, nor Mile. Mezeray, 
who was greatly interested in Lucien Bonaparte, 
nor yet Mile. Gros, who made Joseph happy, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 103 

ever went in at the famous ''little door" of the 
Tuileries. 

In 1808, Bonaparte may have been interested in 
Mme. Leverd, for after a single performance at 
Saint-Cloud she was admitted to the Societe Fran- 
gaise, and it would scarcely have been at the in- 
stigation of M, Remusat the manager, for later, 
despite the Emperor's wishes and orders, he posi- 
tively persecuted her. Mme. Leverd was an excep- 
tionally graceful and charming woman, so sprightly, 
coquettish and bewitching that her lack of real 
talent was generally condoned ; but if Napoleon 
had a fancy for her — which is not certain — she was 
the sole comedienne who appealed to him, for by 
nature, temperament and choice he was drawn to 
tragedians. 

That was the most glorious period in the history 
of tragedy and the Theatre Frangais, the time, 
w^hen, before a highly-cultivated audience who 
would not permit the slightest inaccuracy to pass 
unnoticed ; before soldiers who were in accord with 
noble and generous sentiments, a marvellous com- 
pany kept alive the traditions of epic literature. 
While Bonaparte favored the actors with his pro- 
tection, and was not sparing with money, he was 
severely critical ; he held that the lines which they 
spoke were precepts for the nation and were of less 



104 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

importance for its literary education than for the 
formation of its morals. He once said to Goethe : 
" Tragedy should be the school of kings and people, 
it is the highest point a poet can attain." One 
evening on retiring he said : ' ' Tragedy warms the 
heart and elevates the mind ; it does, and should, 
create heroes," and it was then that he added : "If 
Corneille was alive I would make him a king." 

Bonaparte did not care for melodrama, which he 
claimed had no proper place in dramatic literature, 
and had little taste for comedy, considering, like 
Moliere and Beaumarchais, that it was unreal, 
agreeing with Le Sage that it was repulsive, and 
with Fabre d'Eglantine that it was pitifully un- 
natural ; farce was utterly incomprehensible, and 
failed to distract him. Jokes, witticisms and 
cleverly turned phrases, even when they touched 
upon the main subject, but which were not, as he 
said, ''the spirit of the thing," pretty phrases and 
graceful couplets all escaped him ; he despised and 
disdained, or, rather, he ignored them. Tragedy 
seemed to him strong, serious, noble ; his equals 
spoke in the kings, heroes and gods of tragedy, in 
their words he imagined he heard his own voice, for 
it was in such fashion that he wished to be repre- 
sented to posterity, when, with the lapse of time, 
his life should be depicted on the stage. 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 105 

Having this passion for tragedy Napoleon was 
naturally drawn in his hours of leisure to seek those 
who interpreted it ; the pretty faces of the sou- 
brettes, the affected innocence of the ingneues, and 
the airs of the great coquettes could all be met at 
his court, the whole company of the social comedy 
were at his beck and call ; but the women who im- 
personated Phedra, Andromache, Iphigenia and 
Hermione, were no longer courtesans but beings 
idealized by the characters they assumed, and view- 
ing them at the play it was not the actress he 
desired, but the heroine she represented, and the 
artist's actual presence did not detract from this 
impression, the satisfaction of a purely sensual 
desire being hid from his eyes behind the shadow 
of poetry. 

Eecalled to reality by the press of business, hav- 
ing but a moment to give to the creatures of his 
fancy, unfamiliar with courteous phrases and un- 
able to dissimulate the scorn he felt for those who, 
at a message from a valet, would rush to pamper 
his senses, Napoleon manifested, in both speech and 
action, a brutality which in another would have 
been pure cynicism : actually no one was less a 
cynic than he. " To everything pertaining to sen- 
suality," says one of his intimate servitors, "he 
gave a poetic color and name ; " even his brusque- 



106 NAPOLEOISr, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

ness of speech dissimulated a certain embarrassment 
which he always felt in the presence of women. He 
professed a viciousness which he did not possess ; 
thus, in conversation at Saint Helena, he wished to 
appear more familiar with sensations than senti- 
ments, while in reality no one was more sentimental 
than he. 

Desire in him did not have its rise in sensuality, 
but from an over-excited imagination, and it hap- 
pened not infrequently, that by the time the fair 
one was at hand the current of his thoughts had 
changed, that he was occupied with affairs of state 
and anything which distracted him was a bore. A 
tap at the door was the signal that the expected 
guest had arrived: ''Bid her wait," the Consul 
would exclaim. Upon a second, and impatient tap : 
" Bid her disrobe," the harassed Consul would com- 
mand. At the third tap he lost all patience and 
would cry: "Send her away!" and then would 
return to his work. 

Such was the experience, so we are informed, of 
Mile. Duchesnois, but she was accustomed to such 
adventures. At the beginning of the consulate a 
young elegant, who had just inherited a fortune, 
invited some of his friends to celebrate his good 
luck at a country house in the environs of Saint 
Denis ; they breakfasted, sang and played cards, then 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 107 

they began to feel bored, and the host sent to a 
well-known house in the Chaussee d'Antin for some 
of the gentler sex to enliven his guests. One of the 
young women remained without a gallant, being too 
plain to be attractive, although possessed of fine eyes, 
a svelt figure, an air of amiability and an expres- 
sion of sadness which rendered her interesting ; the 
party played at hide-and-seek in the park, and this 
girl, who was Mile. Duchesnois, ran like a fawn, all 
her movements being graceful and supple, while her 
musical voice and clever conversation made her 
appear more intellectual and cultivated than her 
companions. Among the company was a young 
man who took pity upon her, conversed with her, 
and, finding her clever, cultivated her society and 
finally spoke of her to Legouve who was curious to 
meet her, and who, on hearing her read some verses, . 
was astonished at her talent. 

Legouve gave Mile. Duchesnois advice and in- 
troduced her at Mme. de Montesson's where she met 
General Valence ; he in turn became interested in 
her and promised to interest Mme. Bonaparte in her 
behalf and arranged for her debut. She made her 
first appearance in Phedra, and it was not until a 
year or two later that her adventure at the Tuile- 
ries took place. Women have certain memories 
which nothing can obliterate, and Mile. Duchesnois 



108 KAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

guarded throughout her life the apprehension that 
the words so often heard in her early youth and in 
the days of servitude, ''she is too ugly," would 
again ring in her ears. 

Therese Bourgoin was also dismissed in the same 
unceremonious manner, but she who so insolently 
answered : ' ' Neither seen nor heard of, " in response 
to a letter of inquiry from a duchess of the Empire 
and wife of a marshal of France regarding a lost 
parrot, was not likely to accept such treatment in 
a spirit of humility, particularly when the affront 
to her vanity was augmented by a personal loss — 
that of a rich lover, the minister of the Interior, 
Chaptal. After Therese Bourgoin's second ap- 
pearance, in which she had been greatly harassed, 
Chaptal secured an engagement for her at the 
Theatre Frangais, and to confirm this favor he 
wrote a public and official letter to Mile. Dumesnil, 
announcing the bestowal of a ministerial gratuity 
and thanking her for having profitably used the 
leisure of her retirement in the formation of such 
a pupil. Mile. Dumesnil, at his request, gave the 
debutante some worldly advice, and Chaptal and 
the young actress were to be seen everywhere 
together ; he placed the newspapers at her orders, 
and gave Paris food for scandal. Mile. Bourgoin 
was just suited to a man of fifty ; she had an in- 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 109 

genuous air and roguish smile, clear, infantile eyes, 
which gave her an appearance of innocence, a ring- 
ing voice and spiciness of speech, which, combined, 
gained for her the appellation of " the goddess of 
joy and pleasure, " 

Chaptal's great mistake lay in disregarding ap- 
pearances and so compromising himself ; blinded by 
Mile. Bourgoin's specious manner, he believed im- 
plicitly in her fidelity ; a belief of which Napoleon 
was malicious enough to disabuse him. One even- 
ing, when he had a business engagement with the 
minister, he also made an appointment with Mile. 
Bourgoin, and the actress was announced within 
Chaptal's hearing ; Napoleon sent word that she 
must wait, and a little later excused himself entirely, 
but Chaptal, on hearing his mistress announced, had 
gathered up his papers and departed, and he sent in 
his resignation that same night. The young woman 
on her side openly declared war, and at St. Peters- 
burg, where she went after the peace of Tilsit, she 
regaled her adorers with all the epigrams and 
lampoons regarding the Emperor which were 
amusing Paris. 

At Erfurt the Emperor took his revenge and 
entertained the Czar with epigrams on Mile. 
Bourgoin, warning him against her over- generosity 
in affairs of the heart, which naturally militated 



110 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

against her success. At the restoration she espoused 
the royalist cause, all the more intensely because she 
had been presented to the king by the Duke de Berry 
and had good reasons for clinging to the Bourbons. 
During the hundred days she did not hesitate to 
array herself in their colors, for which no one inter- 
fered with her, but as the Duke de Berry failed to 
renew their relations on his return, her enthusiasm 
died a natural death. 

Although Napoleon's relations with Mesdames 
Duchesnois and Bourgoin were unimportant, it was 
not the same with Mile. George. Napoleon was 
installed at Saint-Cloud when Mile. George visited 
him for the first time ; she was received in the 
small apartment opening into the orangery, and it 
is claimed that it was on this occasion that he stung 
her pride by saying : " You must have hideous feet 
for you keep your stockings on. " Her animal beauty 
was so perfect in every other respect that this defect 
struck Napoleon's eye and so impressed him that 
the remark escaped involuntarily. 

No one was more keenly alive to the beauty of 
well-modelled feet and hands than Bonaparte ; it was 
one of the first things that he looked at in a woman, 
and when they were ill- formed he used to say : 
" Her extremities are common." Such was the case 
with Mile. George, who, at seventeen, was superbly 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. Ill 

handsome, whose head, shoulders, arms and body- 
were fit for a painter's model, but whose extremities, 
particularly the feet, were very ugly ; doubtless the 
coarse, ill-made shoes which she had worn when 
sweeping her father's doorsteps at Amiens had 
helped to deform them. The father was manager of 
a theatre and led its orchestra. 

Napoleon passed nearly the whole of that winter 
at Saint-Cloud, and Mile. George was frequently 
his guest ; aside from admiring her beauty, he was 
entertained by her cleverness and aptness at repartee ; 
she recounted to him all the stories, and imitated 
for him the actions of the habitues of the Theatre 
Frangais, and in those days there were lots of good 
stories going about. Her visits were continued 
after he returned to Paris, where he received her in 
an apartment of the entresol at the Tuileries ; he 
never went to her house, and so never encountered 
Coster de Saint-Victor, or any other of her lovers. 
Mile. George claimed that her intimacy with Napo- 
leon endured for two years, and that during all 
that time she was absolutely faithful : it was more 
than was expected of her. 

Josephine soon learned of this affair, was unusu- 
ally disquieted by it, and treated her husband to 
innumerable scenes. ' ' She worries a great deal more 
than is called for, " wrote Bonaparte ; ' ' she is always 



112 KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. , 

fearful that I may fall seriously in love ; can she 
not understand that love is not for me ? Love is a 
passion which makes one willing to abandon every- 
thing for the sake of the beloved person ; certainly 
I am not of a nature to give myself up so completely, 
and what can it then matter to Josephine that I 
amuse myself with women for whom I feel no such 
sentiment ? " 

No one could reason better, but reason went for 
nothing with Josephine. She was obliged to ac- 
knowledge, however, that Napoleon was very 
discreet ; there was no scandal, no favors shown 
Mile. George as an actress, for when she failed to 
keep her engagement she was rudely enough men- 
aced with imprisonment and knew that the threat 
was not an idle one ; when she played at court 
she received the same fee as her comrades, and 
it is said that when she made bold enough to ask 
Napoleon for his portrait he handed her a double 
Napoleon, saying: "Here it is, and said to be a 
good likeness." 

Probably he gave her money, for on the books of 
the privy purse the item, " handed to His Majesty 
the Emperor," is frequently repeated, designating 
sums of from ten to twenty thousand francs, al- 
though nothing indicates the uses for which they 
were destined ; on one occasion only, the 16th of 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 113 

August, 1807, does Mile. George's name appear on 

these books, against a gift of ten thousand francs. 

but three years had then elapsed since the cessation 

of her visits to the Tuileries, and this present was 

doubtless simply a memento presented on her 

saint's day. Less than a year later, on the 11th of 

May, 1808, Mile. George left Paris surreptitiously in 

company with Duport, an opera dancer, who, fearing 

to be arrested at the barriers, had disguised himself 

as a woman. Ignoring alike her engagement at the 

Theatre Frangais and her creditors, she fled to Russia 

to rejoin a lover, who, they say, had promised to 

marry her ; this lover was Benckendorff , brother of 

the Countess d'Lieven, who came to Paris in the 

suite of the ambassador Tolstoi ; he had just been 

recalled and purposed to show off his mistress in St. 

Petersburg, and above all before the Czar. 

Underlying all this there was quite an intrigue, 

the object of which was to win the Czar from Mme. 

Narishkine, by a brief liaison with the French 

actress, from which, it was thought, he could be 

easily lead back to the Empress. Mile. George most 

assuredly suspected nothing of these fine schemes, 

and in letters to her mother she expatiated upon 

the charms of her ' ' good Benckendorff, " and signed 

herself, in August of 1808, " George Benckendorff." 

She was presented to the Emperor Alexander who 
8 



114 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

gave her a handsome diamond ornament and had 
her called to Peterhoff, but she was never asked the 
second time ; she claimed that the grand duke, 
who, after a performance of Phedra, said : "Your 
Mile. George is not worth as much in her way as my 
charger in his," visited her daily and " loved her as 
a sister." 

According to her, the Eussian nobility and gentry 
alike were her adorers, but this was not the end the 
conspirators had in view when they encouraged her 
going to St. Petersburg, nor was it what Napoleon 
had permitted them to plan when the plot had been 
revealed to him ; nevertheless, when, in 1812, Mile. 
George desired to return to France and rushed to 
rejoin ihe principal actors of the Societe Frangaise 
who had been summoned to Dresden during the 
armistice, the Emperor not only had her reinstated 
in the society, but ordered that she should receive a 
salary for the six years of absence ; her comrades 
never forgave that. 

During the hundred days Mile. George sent word 
to Napoleon that she could give him papers which 
would compromise the Duke d'Otrante, and Napo- 
leon sent a trusted messenger to her ; on his return 
he asked : "Did not mademoiselle tell you that her 
affairs were very much embarrassed ? " '' No, sire," 
replied the messenger, " she only spoke of her desire 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 115 

tc hand those papers personally to your Majesty." 
"I already know what they refer to, Caulaincourt 
has mentioned them," returned the Emperor, "and 
he told me also that Mile. George was in straitened 
circumstances ; you are to give her twenty thousand 
francs from my private purse." 

Mile. George at least was grateful, and undoubt- 
edly the sentiments which she frankly avowed mili- 
tated against her, and caused her brutal expulsion 
from the Theatre Frangais. Even in her old age, 
when nothing remained either in face or figure of 
the one time triumphant beauty, her voice trembled 
when she spoke of Napoleon, and she manifested 
such unfeigned emotion that she deeply impressed 
the young men who listened to her, and it was not 
the lover whom she lauded, but the Emperor. This 
woman, not from the prudery of old age, for she 
spoke freely enough of other lovers, but from a sort 
of awe, seemed to forget that Napoleon had ever 
found her beautiful and sought her love, and she 
spoke not of the man he had been for her, but of 
the man he had been for France. Mile. George re- 
minds one of one of those nymphs whom the gods 
honored by a brief caress, and who, blinded by the 
heavenly effulgence, failed to see the face of the 
deity. 



116 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER IX. 

READERS. 

Tragedians alone climbed the dark staircase, 
and under the guidance of Constant or Roustam 
traversed a gloomy corridor, lighted night and day 
by argand lamps, and finally reached a room in the 
entresol from which a secret staircase led to Bona- 
parte's private apartments. Every morning Mme. 
Bernard, the imperial florist, placed a bouquet in 
this room, there was an appropriation of six hun- 
dred francs a year for that express purpose, but the 
flowers, which were renewed daily, died less quickly 
than the sentiment which inspired the visitors. 

As Bonaparte rose in power these visitors — the 
solicitous, the ambitious, the intriguants — became so 
numerous that it would be impossible to keep count 
of them all. Every man who fills a position of 
power finds himself solicited by like callers, who 
await only a sign to give themselves to him, and, 
keeping themselves constantly in view, beg for a 
glance, seeking a profitable dishonor. Napoleon 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 117 

was thirty in 1800, thus, up to 1810, he was in the 
prime of life, and in vigorous health ; he neither 
sought nor shunned amours, but, aside from Jose- 
phine, only two women ever inspired him with deep 
affection ; he thought but moderately well of the 
sex, none of them ever interfered with his work, 
distracted his thoughts, retarded his progress or 
caused a modification of his plans ; and these little 
episodes were not unlike the supper which was 
nightly set out for him upon one end of his writing- 
table : he would not have taken a step to procure 
food, but, finding it at hand, very naturally par- 
took of it, and at once returned to his work. The 
important fact is not that a few veiled women 
stole by night into the Emperor's secret apartment, 
but that no woman, wife or mistress, habitually 
frequented the study and the ministerial cabinet. 

If Napoleon were not the person in question, if 
certain of his liaisons had not been recounted with 
details invented at pleasure, and if some of his 
favorites had not become authors, either for the 
pecuniary profit accruable from their memoirs, or 
for the pleasure of appearing before the public in a 
role they had never played, it would hardly be 
worth while to take note of these transitory love- 
affairs, but the calumnies have been too widely 
spread to render the truth unimportant. 



118 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

One of the women who have become best known 
as a writer, and who received innumerable favOrs 
from both Consul and Emperor, must still escape 
censure ; for circumstantial evidence, no matter 
how convincing, should not replace positive proof, 
and the study of characters analogous to hers will 
place her in the rank she should occupy. 

Another, much less celebrated, but who up to the 
present time has done good service to pamphleteers, 
is a certain Mme. de Yaudey, who, when the Em- 
pire was proclaimed, was named lady-in-waiting on 
the strong recommendation of M. Lecoulteux de 
Canteleu. She was well-born, being the daughter 
of that' remarkable soldier, Michaud d' Argon, who 
invented the floating batteries used at the siege of 
Gibraltar, furnished the plans for the campaign in 
Holland in 1Y93, took Breda without striking a 
blow, and was one of the most prominent senators 
of the council ; she was well connected, also, for 
her husband, M. de Barberot de Vellexon, Lord of 
Vaudey and captain in the royal Bourgundians, wa& 
descended from an old Alsatian family, residents oi 
Gray since the fifteenth century ; moreover, she 
was an extremely pretty person, sparkling with wit 
and unusually clever, sang exquisitely, and wrote 
even better. Mme. de Vaudey was appointed lady- 
in-waiting in 1814, and as the Empress was about 



\ NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 119 

starting to take the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle, she 
accompanied her ; and when Napoleon, early in 
September, rejoined Josephine at Aix, for the tri- 
umphal journey on the Rhine, Mme. de Vaudey 
accompanied them everywhere, and employed her 
time in amusing His Majesty. On her return to 
Paris she thought herself in a position to brave the 
Empress, whose jealousy was aroused, and to set 
up housekeeping on the footing of a favorite in a 
pretty little chateau near Auteuil where she enter- 
tained largely, gave fetes, lived like a princess, and, 
following her imperial mistress' example, ran deeply 
into debt. Once, after a prolonged audience, she 
laid the state of her finances before the Emperor, 
and her debts were paid ; a second disclosure of her 
pecuniary embarrassment met with the same suc- 
cess ; but when she petitioned for a third audience. 
Napoleon refused downright to see her. "I have 
not," he said to Duroc, " either sufficient money 
nor good-nature to pay such a price for what I can 
get so cheaply ; thank Madame de Vaudey for the 
kindness she has shown me, and never mention 
her to me again. " 

On the receipt of this message Mme. de Vaudey 
wrote a pathetic letter, declaring that she would 
poison herself if her debts — debts of honor ! — were 
not paid in twenty-four hours. The aide-de-camp 



120 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

on duty was hastily dispatched to Auteuil, and found 
the lady disposed for anything — except suicide ; — it 
was immediately requested that she send in her 
resignation as lady-in-waiting, and that is why her 
name does not appear on the imperial almanac. 

Some years later, after her mind had become un- 
balanced, Mme. de Vaudey called upon M. de Po- 
lignac and offered to assassinate Napoleon ; later 
still, reduced to destitution, almost blind and with 
a paralyzed arm she peddled her Souvenirs du Di- 
rectoire et de VEmpire as a pretext for asking as- 
sistance, and it was she who furnished Ladvocat, 
the librarian, with the greater part of his Me- 
moires d''une dame du Palais ; but she was in want 
and mentally unbalanced, others had not the same 
excuse. It was Josephine who, on the solicitation 
of Lecoulteux, had introduced Mme. de Vaudey at 
court, and she had numberless proteges of the 
same, and of an inferior order, none of whom 
merited her patronage and who appear to have had 
no other reason for being at court than their will- 
ingness to cater to Napoleon's fancies. 

This state of affairs was not premeditated by 
Josephine, but her Creole nature had need of com- 
panionship and distraction ; she liked to surround 
herself with agreeable and compliant people who 
were neither her equals Jior yet servants, whose 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 121 

1 

pretty faces pleased her eye, whose conversation 
amused, and whose accomplishments helped to dis- 
tract her, who, in short, peopled pleasantly the 
palace wherein she claimed she lived in sad and 
solitary state ; she engaged them without making 
many inquiries, sometimes touched by a sad story, 
sometimes attracted by a pretty face or an unex- 
pectedly bright response. These young women, 
from some of whom the bloom of innocence had 
already been rubbed by friction with the world, 
were all hoping for conquests ; poor and not edu- 
cated to entertain conscientious scruples, they were 
thrown suddenly into the midst of a court which 
was one of the most splendid in history, and in the 
long idle days which they spent in the Empress' 
private apartments they had nothing to do but ac- 
cept the attentions of the officers with whom they 
constantly came in contact and to angle for hus- 
bands. Naturally they aspired to find husbands 
among the officers who thronged the palace, as so 
many women no better than themselves had done ; 
women who were then wives of marshals of the 
Empire ; they saw constantly and familiarly him 
from whom emanated all favors, who at a sign 
could make or destroy one's fortune, and put them- 
selves in his way, ambitious for that sign, ready to 
risk anything in order to obtain it ; they were com- 



122 KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

plaisant, presented themselves only when desired, 
and exerted themselves to please, and as the subal- 
terns kept a sharp lookout to see if the Emperor 
admired any of them, arrangements were speedily 
concluded and affairs followed their natural course 
without the slightest attempt at seduction on one 
side, or the least love on the other. But, no matter 
how carefully concealed the intrigue, Josephine 
always discovered it ; then there was a scene, and 
the young person was discharged ; however, she 
had usually received a good dot and was apt to 
crown her career by marriage with some gentleman 
who was not over-scrupulous, and thus become the 
progenitor of people of some importance. 

A typical case was that of Felicite Longory, 
daughter of a petty officer of the cabinet, whom 
Josephine had called to fill the position of lady 
usher. As such she was stationed in the salon into 
which the private apartments opened, and her duties 
consisted simply of throwing open the double doors 
for the passage of the Emperor or Empress ; for this 
service she received three thousand, six hundred 
francs a year, which sum Josephine supplemented 
by six hundred francs in 1806. Felicite was a per- 
sonage of no importance, almost a servant, yet she 
succeeded in attracting the attention of the Emperor, 
and, the inevitable scen^ with the Emptess eiisu- 



NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 123 

ing, was naturally discharged, and later married 
well. 

Mile. Lacoste stood a little higher on the social 
plane. She was a slight and pretty blonde, an 
orphan without fortune, who had been brought up 
by an aunt who was said to be a schemer, and who 
managed her niece's presentation to Josephine. The 
Empress, touched by the girl's forlorn state, gave her 
an ambiguous position, vaguely entitled a reader. 
Mile. Lacoste certainly did not find her duties 
fatiguing, for hardly had she assumed the position 
when the court departed for Milan where the corona- 
tion was to take place, and she followed the court, 
without being of it, for she had no clearly defined 
position. As reader, Mile. Lacoste was denied access 
to the drawing-room of the ladies-in-waiting; and, too 
well-bred to associate with the ladies' maids, near to 
whom, however, she was lodged, she felt isolated and 
forlorn in her new surroundings. At Stupinitz the 
Emperor caught sight of her and remarked her pretty 
face ; at Milan he spoke to her and an understanding 
was arrived at. Josephine, however, soon became 
aware of it and there was a terrible scene ; the reader 
was ordered to leave and her aunt summoned from 
Paris to escort her home ; but before her departure 
the Emperor insisted that she should appear once at 
least among the Empress' retinue. This created 



124 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

a great scandal, for a reader was not supposed to 
appear outside the private apartments. On return- 
ing to Paris Napoleon undertook to find a husband 
for Mile. Lacoste, and married her to a rich finan- 
cier ; she made an honest wife and devoted mother, 
and never reappeared at the Tuileries. 

During this same journey to Italy, in the midst 
of the fetes given at Genoa in celebration of the 
union of France and the Ligurian Republic, a 
lady by name of Gazzani or Gazzana (her name has 
been written both ways), crossed Napoleon's path ; 
she was the daughter of a Mme. Bertani, a dancer, 
or, according to some historians, a singer connected 
with the Grand-Theatre. 

Out of compliment to Josephine a number of 
Italian ladies had gone to Milan, and it had been 
arranged that La Gazzani should accompany them ; 
it was a strangely assorted party, comprising ladies 
of the Negrone, Brignole, Doria and Remedi fam- 
ilies, and women like Mme. Gazzani and Bianchina 
La Fleche, who was destined to such a brilliant 
career in Westphalia. 

Carlotta Gazzani was tall, rather too slight per- 
haps, but with a most graceful and elegant car- 
riage ; her hands and feet were not remarkable for 
their beauty, indeed she invariably wore gloves, but 
her features were of the purest type of Italian 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 125 

beauty and her eyes large, dark and very brilliant. 
Even women praised La G-azzani's beauty, which 
is positive proof that it was great, but also, that she 
lacked that peculiar and indescribable charm which 
renders some women so captivating and the envy 
of all their sex. Mme. Eemusat admitted that 
it was her husband, then first chamberlain, who 
charged himself with the Italian beauty's introduc- 
tion at court, and who persuaded the Emperor to 
nominate her reader to Josephine ; evidently it was 
not Talleyrand alone who, as Napoleon once said, 
" always had his pocket full of mistresses." 

Mme. Gazzani, then called Mme. Gazzani Brentano, 
and who long afterwards assumed the title of Bar- 
oness de Brentano, replaced Mile. Lacoste, at a salary 
of five hundred francs a month ; from 1805 to 1807 
little was heard of her, for during that period which 
comprised the battle of Austerlitz and the campaign 
in Prussia and Poland the Emperor was little in 
France, but on his return to Paris and later at 
Fontainebleau she saw her opportunity and seized 
it. She was so lodged that she could easily reach 
the Emperor at all hours, and when summoned by 
him immediately hastened to obey. Shene^erat- 
temnted to pose as a favorite, but accepted with 
modesty her role of occasional mistress, and the 
Empress, at first inclined to be jealous, was quickly 



126 N^APOLEON, LOVER AND HIJSIfAND. 

reassured by Napoleon's making her his confidante. 
The Italian retained a respectful and submissive 
attitude towards the Empress, and remained unpre- 
tentiously in her place. She was accorded the entree 
of the drawing-room reserved for the ladies-in-wait- 
ing, but, that favor bestowed. Napoleon did not pub- 
licly interest himself in her and permitted the ladies 
of the palace to treat her as they pleased and shun 
her if they chose ; their hostility, however, was of 
a short duration, and soon several of them, and not 
the least haughty, relented sufficiently to admit her 
into their circle. Mme. Gazzani obtained something 
more substantial, however, from her relations with 
the Emperor than the flatteries of the court, as she 
secured the general receivership at Evreau for her 
husband. 

After the imperial divorce Mme. Gazzani re- 
joined her lord, and being close to Navarre, where 
Josephine was residing, she became an intimate of 
the household to which she was strongly attracted 
by a liaison with M. de Pourtales, a groom of the 
Empress' household. Her intimacy with the Em- 
peror terminated at Fontainebleau, after that he 
only saw her by chance. He never loved her and 
appears never to have talked of her, but she was 
consoled for his forgetfulness by the success in life 
of her daughter, Charlotte- Josephine-Eugenie-Claire, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AKD HUSBAND. 127 

self-styled Baroness de Brentano, who made a brill, 
iant match and married M. Alfred Mosselman, by 
whom she had a daughter who married M. Eugene 
Le Hon. 

Although oblivious of Mme. Gazzani, Napoleon 
often spoke of a certain Mile. Guillebeau, the 
daughter of a bankrupt banker, who was, in 1808, 
appointed to assist Mme. Gazzani as reader. Mile. 
Guillebeau's mother was Irish by birth, and had 
three daughters, two of whom were grown and con- 
tributed to the family income by dancing and play- 
ing the tambourine in the drawing-rooms of the 
nobility. The eldest compassed an introduction to 
the Princess Elisa, who assisted her to make a good 
marriage, and the younger, who the gossips affirmed 
had not been cruel either to Murat or Junot, was 
clever enough to secure the protection of Queen 
Hortense, who was taken with her pretty face and 
clever dancing. At a masquerade ball, given by 
Caroline at the Elysee, Hortense, who was to lead a 
costumed quadrille, took a fancy to dress Mile. 
Guillebeau as Folly, and to have her, tambourine 
in hand, lead the procession of her maidens into the 
ball-room. Caroline had double reasons for jeal- 
ousy, and as soon as she perceived Mile. Guillebeau 
she rushed to Hortense's side and a lively scene 
ensued, which resulted in Folly's dismissal from the 



128 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

ball-room. This was an episode in the continual 
warfare which raged between the Bonapartes and 
the Beauharnais, and to avenge both herself and 
her favorite, Hortense presented Mile. Guillebeau 
to her mother, who, to annoy Caroline, attached the 
girl to herself in the position of reader. 

This incident occurred just previous to the journey 
to Bayonne, and when the imperial household was 
installed at Marrac, Mile. Guillebeau found herself 
in an isolated position ; court etiquette closed the 
door of the drawing-room against her during the 
day, and she only entered it occasionally of an even- 
ing in order to entertain the company with her 
music and dancing, and was therefore reduced to 
passing most of the time in her bedroom, which was 
in reality nothing better than a garret, for the 
chateau of Marrac was small, and had not been con- 
structed with a view to lodging an imperial house- 
hold. Being a great coquette, the girl was fearfully 
bored, and was well content when a servant — a 
Mamaluke — tapped at her door and announced an 
imperial visit. Matters were progressing quite to 
her taste when Lavallette, who, by right of his po- 
sition of postmaster-general, watched the corre- 
spondence of the household, sent Napoleon a letter 
written to Mile. Guillebeau by her mother, in which 
she had clearly traced the role her daughter had to 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 129 

play, and recommended her to lose no occasion to 
make herself agreeable to His Majesty, and to 
strengthen his fancy for her to the utmost ; point- 
ing out to the girl how greatly to her interest it 
was to follow this course, and how she could profit 
by the imperial weakness. Napoleon was so dis- 
gusted with the lowness of the intrigue, in which he 
afterwards discovered that Prince de Benevant was 
implicated, that he immediately commanded a post- 
chaise for mademoiselle, and she was packed off to 
Paris escorted only by a valet. 

Mile. Guillebeau met and married a M. Sourdeau 
who, thanks to the Emperor, was given a receiver- 
ship, but he appropriated the funds and prison 
stared him in the face when the restoration occurred 
and proved his salvation. Mme. Sourdeau was 
clever enough to secure an introduction to the Duke 
de Berry, who found her '^ charming and possessed 
of the most beautiful eyes in the world," and as a 
recompense for favors received appointed her hus- 
band consul at Tangier. 

In the life of Napoleon, these passing fancies 

count for little ; they barely appealed to his senses, 

never touched his heart ; they give us no insight to 

the active side of his nature, but demonstrate his 

hatred of intrigue, his generosity and certain of his 

habits. It would be easy to relate many adven- 
9 



130 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

tures of the same kind, but none more interesting ; 
tales of garrison adventures for which, as Emperor, 
he paid two hundred napoleons where one of his 
captains would have paid twenty francs ; he was 
not constituted differently than his marshals and 
his soldiers ; he was a man, but he was not a man 
whose senses were so imperious that he was always 
forced to yield to them. 

At Vienna he observed a young girl, who, on her 
side, was apparently infatuated with him ; he had 
her followed, and invited her to visit him in the 
evening at Schoenbrunn ; she accepted, and as she 
spoke only Italian and German they conversed in 
the former language. Napoleon discovered almost 
immediately that the girl belonged to a most re- 
spectable family and did not comprehend in the least 
what the invitation to meet him implied, and that 
while she felt a passionate admiration for him it 
was ingenuous and innocent ; he ordered that she 
should be immediately reconducted to her home, and 
provided for her future, giving her a dot of twenty 
thousand florins. 

This act was far from being unique in Napoleon's 
history, it was repeated three times at least in his 
life ; on the last occasion at Saint Helena. 



NAPOLEON, LOVES AND HUSBAND. 131 



CHAPTER X. 

JOSEPHINE'S CORONATION. 

In the idleness and disquietude of her daily life, 
which resembled closely that of an aged sultana, 
Josephine had ample leisure for reflection, and the 
outgrowth of her continual agitation, anxiety and 
jealousy was the knowledge that by one thing only 
could her position be secured — the birth of a child. 
Without understanding Napoleon's ambitious pro- 
jects, she yet knew that he had a consuming desire 
for male issue, and, as his fortunes rose, gradually 
comprehended why* he so desired an heir, and 
realized that for her maternity should no longer 
be a pretext for obtaining favors in the shape of 
journeys which gave her relaxation from the monot- 
onous life at the Tuileries — but an aim ; that the 
throne of which her husband was slowly climbing 
the steps should have an assured heir. 

To Bonaparte, chief of a republic, Bonaparte re- 
establishing the Bourbons and content with a life- 
long place of honor under the restored monarchy, a 



132 NAPOLEON, -LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

son was not indispensable, but, unfortunately for 
Josephine, the contingent glory of a role a la Monk 
did not tempt him, nor the disinterestedness of a 
life like Washington's satisfy him. A great flood 
of opinion, one of those popular currents which 
nothing stems, swept all obstacles from his path and 
raised him first to a consulate which was republican, 
later to one which was autocratic and differed from 
a monarchy only in name, and above all in the in- 
solvable question of heredity. 

Around this question of heredity surged the 
ambitions of some and the projects of others. Jose- 
phine saw that Bonaparte's brothers already aspired 
to the succession ; that the sisters debated whether 
their husbands, too, might not have a chance, 
and that the nation itself desired, after so much 
turbulence, a government that would endure more 
than a lifetime ; but if a monarchal form of govern- 
ment was established, who was to succeed Napoleon ? 
There were the Consul's brothers, but by what right 
could they be called to the throne ? An hereditary 
monarchy in its Christian form is a derivative of 
the Hebrew form of government, and is supposedly 
a divine institution, but it applies exclusively to the 
chief of a dynasty and his descendants, however far 
removed, provided that they are male and descended 
in direct line from him. In order that Napoleon's 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 133 

brothers should succeed him it would have been 
necessary to have recourse to an expedient, common 
enough with the ancients, and proclaim that the 
late Charles de Buonaparte had been emperor of 
France, but it was unlikely that the country would 
accept such a fiction. 

Another expedient was to abandon the Hebraic 
law of succession and institute the Roman law of 
adoption ; under that regime the Consul would be 
free to choose as his successor whomsoever he judged 
best fitted to fill his place ; but it was a question 
whether the nation would overcome its prejudice in 
favor of the old monarchal system and accept such 
a solution of the problem. The simplest, most 
natural solution, which would both annihilate the 
ambitions and please the populace, was the birth of 
a son to Napoleon. 

In her anxiety to give to her husband the heir 
so ardently desired Josephine visited innumerable 
mineral springs whose waters were supposed to cure 
sterility, consulted various physicians and submitted 
heroically to any treatment recommended, made 
pilgrimages, and even had recourse to sorcerers ; 
whenever she had the least ground for believing 
herself with child she immediately made Bonaparte 
a sharer in her joyous hopes, and he in turn confided 
his happiness to his intimates ; as each hope died 



134 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

Napoleon became more and more morose, and 
indulged in hard and bitter speeches which attested 
his disappointment. Once at Malmaison, he decided 
to get up a hunt in the park, when Mme. Bonaparte 
came to him weeping and said : " How can you 
think of hunting in the park when all our animals 
are with young ? " at which he retorted in a loud 
voice : " Well, then, I suppose it must be abandoned; 
everything here seems to be prolific except the mis- 
tress?" 

Publicly he threw all the blame for their child- 
lessness upon his wife ; but recalling Mme. Foures 
and many others, none of whom had borne him 
children, he entertained secret doubts of the justice 
of the aspersion he cast upon her ; doubts which 
Josephine stimulated by talking incessantly of her 
children, and by forcing Eugene and Hortense con- 
stantly upon his notice ; she harped so much upon 
the subject that Mme, Bacciochi lost all patience, 
and one day silenced her by remarking : "There 
m.ay be something in what you say, but remember, 
sister, when those children saw the light you were 
much younger than you are now ! " 

The majority of the family, however, were pre- 
vailed upon to accept her view of the situation, and 
Napoleon himself did not combat it vigorously. 
On several occasions he said to his brother Joseph : 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 135 

"I am childless, you all think me impotent, and 
Josephine, despite her anxiety, is not likely to bear 
children now ; so after me the deluge ! " 

When, on his return from Spain, Lucien preached 
divorce, and suggested the advisability of a marriage 
with an Infanta, Napoleon rejected the proposition ; 
undoubtedly he had diverse motives for so doing, 
but possibly the strongest of all was of a personal 
and private nature ; he may have reasoned that 
while a union with a Bourbon princess would un- 
questionably further his ambitious schemes, it was 
foolish to struggle for a throne if unable to transmit 
his name and glory to a son. 

The Spanish union was nevertheless urged by 
Lucien, for whom Josephine had but scant affection, 
remembering that he had been the first advocate of 
a divorce, and from that time she made no further 
effort to conciliate her husband's brothers, but did 
not hesitate to report any story which might injure 
them, however false, nor to embellish the truth ; and 
she was not sorry when a rupture finally occurred. 
Napoleon often said of Josephine that "she bears 
no more malice than a pigeon," but this was true 
only when her personal interests were not at stake. 

Although the doubt which she had inspired in 
Napoleon served to avert a divorce in 1801, Josephine 
knew herself to be at the mercy of chance ; it was 



136 KAPOLEON^, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

neither the actresses whose company he frequented, 
nor the ladies of the court whom she feared, for if 
one of them happened to bear a child she reasoned 
that Napoleon could not be assured of his father- 
hood unless a striking physical resemblance proved 
it ; what she dreaded was a liaison similar to the 
one with Mme. Foures, for a child born under such 
conditions meant the shipwreck of all her hopes and 
ambitions, as Bonaparte had reached a point where 
he felt himself upon a level with the old dynasties, 
and knew that a union with him would not be dis- 
dained by the purest blood of France, while there 
was no lack of men like Talleyrand, " the accursed 
limper," ready to tempt him, suggest advantageous 
marriages and act as intermediary. 

In default of a child, which alone, as Napoleon 
himself said, '' could insure Josephine's peace of 
mind and put a stop to her unceasing jealousy," 
how could she attach herself to her husband so 
firmly that he would not dream of breaking the 
chain ? For years associated with him in his public 
life, received everywhere as a sovereign, holding her 
salon at the Tuileries or at Saint-Cloud, obliged by 
Napoleon himself to take precedence over all other 
women, even above his mother at family and infor- 
mal gatherings, presented to the country and to 
Europe as the first lady in France, she could not be 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 137 

repudiated without a scandal^ and such a proceed- 
ing would certainly be badly received by the public. 
She had been the medium for the distribution of 
too many favors, had exercised her influence to ob- 
tain too many pardons, not to have warm and faith- 
ful adherents ; but, as Napoleon's popularity grew 
and his power increased, the worldly prestige of his 
wife diminished, and she realized more and more 
that no tie could bind him to her save a living token 
of their union. 

Josephine finally conceived a most ingenious plan, 
namely, to constitute a heredity by persuading Napo- 
leon to adopt his nephew and her grandson, the child 
of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais ; 
such a procedure would conciliate all factions, sat- 
isfy the Bonapartes, because the heir-presumptive 
would be one of their name, and assure her own 
future, and the question of succession would then 
be settled. She convinced Napoleon of the wisdom 
of this law and he spoke of it to Louis ; but Louis 
indignantly refused invoking the rights of his brother 
Joseph and himself, and before these imaginary and 
baseless claims^ which were without precedent in 
history and totally at variance with the monarchal 
doctrine. Napoleon gave way and renounced the sole 
expedient which would have enabled him to establish 
an heredity without having recourse to divorce. 



138 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HIJSBAND. 

Failing to achieve the adoption of her grandson, 
Josephine saw no other means of consolidating the 
tie which linked her to Napoleon and his fortunes, 
and while suffering the greatest disquietude she was 
obliged to accept the situation with such fortitude 
as she could summon to her aid. 

The First Consul being proclaimed Emperor, she 
naturally became Empress, received the homage of 
the ministers of state and was addressed as "Your 
Majesty," and after the triumphal journey from Aix. 
la-Chapelle to Mayence, after the cannons of the 
Invalides had announced her return to the Parisians 
and the authorities had defiled before her throne, 
her position seemed assured, and a divorce highly 
improbable ; but her own jealousy nearly occasioned 
the dreaded calamity. 

At Saint-Cloud she observed that a lady who had 
called to pay her respects, left the apartment sooner 
than was strictly in accordance with court etiquette, 
and having long suspected an undue intimacy be- 
tween this lady and the Emperor, she herself left 
the drawing-room and mounted the secret stairway 
leading to the private apartment in the entresol 
where he was in the habit of receiving fair visitors, 
and, recognizing the lady's voice, she insisted upon 
being admitted and made a scene which provoked 
Napoleon to violent anger. As a result he declared 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 139 

himself weary of such espionage and determined to 
end it, and saying that he should follow the counsels 
of his friends and secure a divorce, he sent for Eu- 
gene to arrange the details. Eugene arrived, but 
both for his mother and himself he declined all 
favors or any pecuniary assistance ; thus several 
days passed, Eugene remained unapproachable, 
while Josephine did not recriminate, but wept un- 
ceasingly, and Napoleon's resolution weakened be- 
fore her tears ; moreover, he knew himself to be in 
the wrong, and that it was not thus so grave an act 
should be accomplished, and a final conversation 
took place between them. ' ' I have not the courage, " 
said he at its close, "to carry my threat into execu- 
tion, and if you will only be affectionate and obe- 
dient I shall never oblige you to leave me, but I will 
admit that I wish that you yourself would relieve 
me from the embarrassment of our present rela- 
tions." 

Josephine, however, had no taste for self-sacrifice, 
and did not propose to decide her fate. Napoleon 
must be the arbiter ; she was ready to obey, but she 
intended to await his order to descend the steps of 
the throne to which he had raised her. Influenced 
by his habits, political uncertainty, the hope of a 
possible paternity, affection for his stepchildren, the 
necessity of ruining the life which he had linked 



140 KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

with his, of renouncing forever the woman whom 
he still loved, touched by the resignation of the 
Beauharnais family, and provoked at the joy mani- 
fested by Josephine's enemies, Napoleon once more 
abandoned the idea of divorce, and, as though to pre- 
vent its return, commanded his wife to give serious 
attention to the preparations for his coronation, in 
which she should be associated. 

Certainly Josephine should have been content ; 
her most ambitious dreams could never have 
reached this height ; she, the creole, who had been 
brought to France owing to the caprice of a courtesan, 
was to realize the ambitious dreams of past queens 
of France, be crowned by the Pope, and participate 
in the triumphs of the new Charlemagne. 

She was, however, desirous of forging still another 
link in the chain which bound Napoleon to her. 
For eight years she had been perfectly content with 
the civil ceremony which alone cemented their 
union, but it now occurred to her that the benison 
of the Church would lend additional strength to 
her position. She did not ignore the fact that she 
would have great obstacles to surmount before over- 
coming Napoleon's objections to such a step ; she 
knew he would argue that, as the ceremony had not 
already taken place, it was useless to call public 
attention to its omission, that the greater number 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 141 

of the men who surrounded him were in the same 
position as himself, and that by setting them such 
an example he would cause numerous acts of re- 
habilitation, which would appear to be in opposition 
to extant civil laws, and would seemingly indicate 
that the head of the government did not acknowl- 
edge the validity of the only mode of marriage 
which the state recognized, that he would find no 
lack of reasons to advance for his refusal, any of 
which might mask a furtive one. Napoleon knew 
that the Church is accommodating, when she has to 
deal with the powerful ones of earth, and that when 
it is advisable she will cut a knot which she had 
tied, but he felt that if later he was constrained 
to sunder his marriage relations he would prefer 
being free to act for himself and not be under obliga- 
tions to the Holy See. 

Josephine divined all this, and was fully alive to 
the fact that she had nothing to gain by appealing 
to Napoleon, and had no valid reasons to advance 
for the religious solemnization of their union ; she 
knew, too, that to assign conscientious scruples as 
her motive would give not only Napoleon, but the 
whole court, cause for mirth : but the Pope would 
not laugh at her. 

For several years she had been in correspondence 
with Pius VII. and quietly paving the way for a 



142 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

religious marriage, so when the Pope called on her 
at Fontainebleau, she confessed that her union with 
Bonaparte had not received the sanction of the 
Church, and the Holy Father, after felicitating her 
upon her commendable desire to obey the laws of 
the Church, promised to insist upon the Sacrament. 
Thus Napoleon's hand was forced, for the Pope was 
quite capable of postponing the coronation if he 
postponed the marriage ; to refuse to anoint the 
Emperor, if Napoleon refused to obey the canons of 
the Church. The ceremony had already been thrice 
adjourned, and each postponement entailed immense 
expenditures, gave rise to discontent among the 
people, and provoked distrust. Paris was filled to 
overflowing with civil and military deputations, it 
would have created an awful scandal if the Pope, 
who had come to Paris solely to anoint and crown 
the Emperor, returned to Rome without having 
performed the ceremony ; it was absolutely neces- 
sary to yield, and on the morning of the 9th 
December, Cardinal Fesch pronounced the nuptial 
benediction. 

If ever a marriage was forced that one was, and 
later Napoleon could truthfully affirm that undue 
influence had been brought to bear upon him, that 
his consent having been unfairly obtained the mar- 
riage was, according to the canons of the Church, 



KAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 148 

null and void ; but this Josephine could not foresee, 
and married by a Cardinal, anointed by a Pope and 
crowned by the Emperor, she fondly believed her 
position unassailable. 



144 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MADAME * * * *, 

Napoleon would not have been the man he was 
had he never felt the need of a love not purely ani- 
mal, of a friendship which should satisfy the senti- 
mental and intellectual side of his nature as well as 
the physical, and as he advanced in years and his 
position isolated him more and more from ordinary 
mortals, the longing for sympathetic companion- 
ship grew upon him. 

During the early days of the consulate this long- 
ing was but faintly felt, but as the fires of youth 
burned down his intellectual nature assumed the 
ascendency, and we find ourselves in the presence of 
a new Napoleon, a man prone to periods of melan- 
choly, possessed by a feverish desire to be under- 
stood, and as apt to indulge in dreams of an ideal 
affection as in ambitious ones, a man delicately 
tender, who found for the expression of his senti- 
ments language suitable for a hero of romance. 
As Napoleon has not previously been presented to 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AKD HUSBAND. 145 

the world in this light one feels some hesitancy in 
so doing, but the proofs that his character did thus 
change, though covering a somewhat later period 
of his life, are still sufficiently authentic to warrant 
the assertion. 

The women to whom Napoleon addressed himself 
at this time were no longer actresses and adven- 
turesses, who made capital out of their relations with 
him, but women of the world who had husbands to 
deceive and reputations to consider, who were cau- 
tious in their indiscretions, destroyed all proof of 
their relations with the Emperor, and whose descend- 
ants carefully guarded the secret, while those who 
were indiscreet enough to gossip about these ladies 
took good care to disguise their names ; even at 
this late day he who lifts the light veil which con- 
ceals their identity would be most discourteous ; 
moreover, one cannot he positive that the veil screens 
but one woman. Naturally one can identify certain 
traits of person and character, particularly when 
retaining from childhood a strong and clear impres- 
sion of a certain face, but such proofs are not doc- 
umentary, and even at the risk of being obscure and 
leaving some points unexplained, one must proceed 
with the greatest caution. There was at the con- 
sular court a young woman of twenty, wedded to a 
man thirty years her senior. The husband was a 



146 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

most respectable person, a great worker, and left 
the best of reputations behind him ; he was one of 
those faithful servants of the state of whom the old 
regime made head clerks, and the new, general 
directors ; he possessed wonderful ability as a finan- 
cier, and it was he who organized and directed a 
financial institution which is conducted to-day upon 
the same lines that he laid down. The wife was 
charming, graceful and amiable ; her features were 
irregular, but her face was rendered remarkable by 
an extremely winning smile and the thoughtful 
expression of her dark blue eyes — eyes which, it must 
be admitted, were somewhat deceptive, as they ex- 
pressed whatever their mistress willed ; her hands 
and feet were marvellously small and beautiful, she 
danced like a fairy, sang like an artist, played the 
harp like a virtuoso, was an excellent listener, and 
did not display unduly her most remarkable intel- 
ligence. This lady lacked neither a strong will, 
worldly wisdom, ambition nor unscrupulousness, 
but she concealed her real hardness by a suave 
manner which enhanced her beauty, and, though of 
hourgeoise origin, she understood the art of polite- 
ness better than many a high-born dame, and in- 
stinctively comprehended the requirements of good 
society (a knowledge which must be innate and 
cannot be acquired) ; and she carried herself with 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 147 

as haughty and disdainful an air as if she had been 
born in the purple rather than of middle-class 
provincials. According to certain authorities it 
was in November, 1803, that Napoleon fell in love 
with Mme. ****; but the affair with the woman 
whom Josephine surprised in the orangery at Saint- 
Cloud seems to destroy this hypothesis, and it is 
more likely that Napoleon paid his first addresses 
to Mme. * * * *j about nine months later, in August, 
1804. The child which was born to Mme. * * * * dur- 
ing that year resembled Bonaparte neither in mind 
nor feature, a fact which, though it inspired Napo- 
leon with some doubt as to its parentage, was a 
safeguard to the wife and confirmed her husband's 
faith in her. It is not uncommon, however, for 
features as characteristic as those of the Bonapartes 
to skip one generation and appear, strongly devel- 
oped, in a second, and it was such a manifestation, 
occurring a generation later in this family, which 
revealed a connection which up to that moment 
had been kept fairly secret. Was the lady at Saint- 
Cloud the person who, towards the end of the con- 
sulate, frequented a little house in the Allee des 
Veuves where Napoleon also went secretly ? Was 
she the same woman whom Napoleon, disguised 
and alone, visited by night at her own house in 
Paris ? It is impossible to say. The adventure at 



148 NAPOLEON, LOVEE. AND HUSBAND. 

Saint-Cloud seems to have been one of those transi- 
tory amours which endure but a day ; nocturnal 
and secret excursions on the part of a man who 
was ordinarily such a stay-at-home as Napoleon, 
demonstrate however, an irresistible attraction 
of which there are few instances in his career. 
There is some uncertainty regarding the identity of 
several of the women who played a part in Napo- 
leon's life about that time which, for the moment, 
it is not advisable to clear up, and about which, 
memorialists and their editors have been careful 
not to enlighten us, out of consideration for the 
woman about whose memory they surge, and above 
all, for her descendants ; nevertheless, there are cer- 
tain facts regarding which all witnesses agree, and 
which, though not positive proof, are the strongest 
sort of circumstantial evidence and permit us to 
fathom the mystery with which these ladies sur- 
round themselves and to divine their names. 

A few days before the arrival of the Pope for the 
coronation. Napoleon, with his whole court, pro- 
ceeded to Fontainebleau, and his retinue were not 
slow to perceive that he appeared unusually serene 
and approachable. One evening, after the Pope 
had retired to his apartments, the Emperor re- 
mained with the Empress, chatting with her ladies- 
in-waiting ; this proceeding did not strike Jose- 



NAPOLEON, LOVEB AND HUSBAND. 149 

phine as natural ; her jealousy was awakened, and 
she began to search for proof of a new intrigue ; 
not knowing exactly whom to suspect, she pounced 
upon Mme. Ney, who denied emphatically to Hor- 
tense, her old schoolfellow at Mme. Campan's, that 
the Emperor was in any way interested in her, but 
asserted that he was simply curious about one of 
the ladies of the court whom Eugene de Beauhar- 
nais found quite to his taste. Eugene was but a 
screen ; the lady accepted his attentions and appeared 
to take pleasure in his society solely to avert sus- 
picion ; she was intimate with Caroline Murat, who 
lent her assistance to the intrigue in order to spite 
Josephine, as she did in many other instances. 

No definite understanding had been arrived at 
when the court returned to Paris, but Napoleon was 
captivated by the lady's charms ; he was loath to 
leave the Empress' apartments when she was on 
duty, and was always ready to join Josephine 
at the theatre if that lady accompanied her ; and, 
though ordinarily he objected to his wife's going to 
the play except in state, he was then ready to 
organize little theatre parties, provided always that 
Madame **** was of the company. Josephine 
grew more and more uneasy and attempted to 
remonstrate, but her remonstrances were so ill re- 
ceived that she dared not insist, and although pub- 



150 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

licly Napoleon seemed more affable and frank than 
ever before, in reality, unless a certain lady was 
present, his temper was irritable and uncertain. 
'' Bonaparte makes me a daily and reasonless 
scene," Josephine wrote a friend about that time ; 
*' he is unbearable." 

About that time Napoleon was seized with a vio- 
lent fancy for playing cards in the evening, and in- 
variably called his sister Caroline and two ladies of 
the palace, one of whom was the object of his affec- 
tion, to be his partners. He played badly, giving 
but scant attention to the game, which indeed 
served only as an excuse for remaining in the society 
of the woman he so admired, and procured him an 
opportunity to gaze upon her and to ponder over 
the charms of an ideal and platonic love ; without 
mentioning names he frequently indulged upon 
these occasions in long and vehement tirades against 
jealousy and jealous women ; and poor Josephine, 
drearily playing whist with court dignitaries, was 
forced to listen to the invectives which, uttered in 
his sonorous voice, rang out in the respectful 
silence of the room and were plainly audible to all. 

At a fete given by the minister of war, in honor 
of the coronation, the women, in accordance with 
the usage of the day, were alone seated at supper, 
the Empress with several of her ladies and the 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 151 

wives of state dignitaries occupying the table of 
honor. Napoleon refused to seat himself but walked 
about, chatting with various ladies in an unusually 
gracious and affable manner ; he was assiduous in 
his attentions to Josephine, and taking a plate from 
the hands of a page served her himself. When he 
fancied that he had manoeuvred enough and had 
been sufficiently polite to the company in general, 
he approached Madame * * * * and engaged in con- 
versation with her neighbor, gradually including 
his charmer, and, perceiving that she wished some 
olives which were set upon the table at a little 
distance, he fetched them to her, saying : "You do 
wrong to eat olives at night, they will make you 
ill," then, turning to the other lady, he added, '' and 
you, madame, do well not to eat them, above all you 
are wise not to imitate Madame * * * * for in all 
things she is inimitable." 

The Emperor's stratagem did not impose upon 
Josephine, whom nothing escaped, and who, in the 
middle of the winter, had been obliged to yield to a 
sudden fancy of his and go to Malmaison, a journey 
which had upset all her plans and made every one 
excessively uncomfortable, for the visit had been so 
suddenly undertaken that there had been no time to 
light the fires, and the first night was spent in a 
veritable icehouse ; the cold, however, had mattered 



152 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

very little to Napoleon who made a nocturnal visit 
which he flattered himself had heen unobserved, 
little suspecting that Josephine, after a long station 
behind a glass door, had learned his secret. 

After the ministerial fete, the court returned to 
Malmaison, and the following morning the Empress 
summoned to her presence the lady who had not 
partaken of olives, and after an aimless conversa- 
tion, abruptly asked what the Emperor had said to 
her on the previous evening, then, what he had 
said to Madame * * * *. The lady answered that His 
Majesty advised Madame * * * * not to eat olives ; 
" Ah," exclaimed the Empress, " while he was giving 
her such good advice he might have told her that it is 
ridiculous for a woman with such a long nose to essay 
the role of Eoxelane ; " then, taking a book from 
the chimney-piece, she added: "Here is the book 
which is turning the heads of all the blonde and thin 
young women." The volume in question was Mme. 
de Genlis' novel, "la Duchesse de La Valliere," and 
the Empress' sarcasm was not idle, for the romance 
was to be found in the room of every lady-in-wait- 
ing ; the book had the enormous sale of ten editions, 
and doubtless the fact that many aspired to a posi- 
tion similar to La Valliere's had not been detrimen- 
tal to its success. 

The Emperor had no intention of installing a 



NAPOLEO:iir, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 153 

favorite. '^ I do not wish women to govern in my 
court," he said upon one occasion, " their influence 
was harmful to Henri IV and Louis XIV, my mis- 
sion is more important than theirs was, and the 
French have become too serious to pardon scanda- 
lous liaisons of their sovereigns. " His real mistress, 
as he often said, was power, and he had worked too 
hard to attain it, to permit of its being stolen or even 
coveted. Madame * * * * who was both very astute 
and very intelligently advised, asked nothing for her- 
self, indeed, she was not able to accept many favors, 
as they might have roused the suspicions of her 
husband, who was far from being indifferent to his 
wife's good name and conduct ; the most that she 
was able to secure individually was a position as 
lady-in-waiting, an appointment which was war- 
ranted neither by her position, birth or anything in 
the past which had endeared her to Bonaparte, and 
which caused some gossip and many malicious 
smiles ; but little as her relations advantaged her 
personally, she profited by them to advance the in- 
terests of others and her one time protectors became 
her proteges. 

Murat, already marshal of the Empire, was pro- 
moted to the dignity of a prince and made admiral- 
in-chief, which classed him, after Cambaceres and 
Lebrun, among the serene highnesses; but at the 



154 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

same time and of his own accord the Emperor 
named Eugene de Beauharnais prince and arch-chan- 
cellor of state, thus placing him upon the same 
level as Murat, and establishing the balance be- 
tween the Bonapartes and the Beauharnais, inclining 
it even in favor of the Beauharnais. There was a 
marked difference in the terms which he employed 
in announcing both decisions to the Senate, and he 
made the positions which his brother-in-law and his 
stepson held in his affections most evident ; on the 
one hand it was clear that he yielded to outside 
pressure and the solicitations of the family, on the 
other, that he gave freely, actuated by the dictates 
of his own heart : ''In the midst of the anxieties 
and the bitterness inseparable from the high rank 
where we are placed, our heart has felt the need of 
affection and sincere friendship, and its wants have 

been gratified by this child of our adoption 

our paternal benediction will accompany this young 
prince throughout his career and, seconded by Provi- 
dence, he will one day be deserving the approbation 
of posterity." Such was the speech which announced 
Eugene de Beauharnais' aggrandizement to the 
senate ; and he had asked for nothing, expressed no 
dissatisfaction with the position of grand officer of 
the Empire and colonel of chasseurs which had pre- 
viously been conferred upon him, as he was on the 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 166 

way to Milan at the head of the mounted guards. 
It was in truth a fine command, and it was a strange 
error on the part of Mme. de Remusat, to represent 
in the light of a disgrace the greatest favor which 
the Emperor could bestow upon a general of twenty- 
three years. 

At all events this disgrace, which, according to 
her, was occasioned by an access of jealousy against 
Eugene, was of singularly short duration, for he 
left Paris on the 16th of January in obedience to an 
order dated on the 14th and which was prompted by 
the necessity for the appearance of the guards at the 
coronation at Milan, and it was but fifteen days later 
that he received a personal letter from the Emperor 
with a copy of the message to the senate and his 
nomination as prince and arch-chancellor of state. 

Nothing could prove more clearly that Napoleon 
was drawn closer to Josephine, that he did not pro- 
pose to be led by any one, and that the affection 
inspired by Madame * * * * was already on the wane : 
satiety comes soon when there is no restraint. It was 
at Malmaison in the heart of winter that the in- 
trigue culminated, and at Malmaison, ere spring- 
flowers had blossomed, that the chains were broken. 

It was while the court was enjoying a fortnight's 
sojourn at Malmaison, during which Napoleon en- 
joyed perfect freedom, and could walk, talk and 



156 NAPOLEO]^, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

enjoy the society of Madame * * * * to his heart's 
content, while Josephine mourned and pined in the 
seclusion of her chamber, that the final rupture 
occurred. One morning the Emperor went to his 
wife's apartments and returning to his old confiden- 
tial manner, admitted that he had been very much 
in love but was disillusioned, and finished by asking 
Josephine to aid him to sunder his relations with 
Madame * * ^ * The Empress took the matter in hand 
and summoned the lady, who, perfectly mistress 
of herself, did not manifest the slightest emotion 
and opposed to the Empress' remarks a mute disdain 
and a face as impassive as marble. 

Although the Emperor never renewed his alle- 
giance, Madame * * * * always remained tenderly at- 
tached to him, while he invariably manifested for her 
the greatest consideration, according her every favor 
compatible with her husband's position, and desig- 
nating her among the first for court honors and 
favors. During his hours of trial she was one of 
his most faithful adherents, she enhanced the fetes 
of the hundred days with her beauty, and when, 
after Waterloo, the vanquished hero was about to 
leave his country forever, Madame * * * * was one of 
the last to visit Malmaison and offer to the dethroned 
Emperor the tribute of her respectful attachment 
and unalterable xievotion. 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND, 157 



CHAPTER XII. 

STEPHANIE DE BEATJHARNAIS. 

Prior even to Austerlitz, Napoleon resolved to 
establish family relations between his house and 
the sovereign houses of Europe which would serve 
to consolidate political alliances ; he was of the opin- 
ion that his government would never be firmly 
established in Europe until the blood of the Napo- 
leons mingled with that of older reigning families, 
and not believing himself marriageable, he mobilized 
around him all who were, boys and girls, with the 
view of strengthening the only bond to which he 
attached any value, because he did not think it sub- 
ject to political hazards. From his point of view 
nothing was more binding, even to princes, than 
ties of blood. 

His first step, on returning from the campaign, 
was to arrange a marriage between Eugene de 
Beauharnais and the Princess Augusta of Bavaria ; 
she was betrothed to the Prince of Baden, but that 
was of no importance. Napoleon finding another 



158 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

wife for the discarded lover in the person of Stepha- 
nie-Louise- Adrienne de Beauharnais, the daughter 
of Claude deBeauharnais, Count of Roches-Baritaud, 
and of Adrienne de Lezay-Marnesia his first wife, 
and cousin, sixteen degrees removed, to Hortense 
and Eugene. 

Stephanie de Beauharnais was born at Paris on 
the 26th of August, 1Y89, and, losing her mother at 
the age of four years, spent some time in the convent 
of Panthemont; a certain Lady de Bath, an old friend 
of her mother's, then took the young girl under her 
protection and, when the convents were closed, con- 
fided her ward to two of the sisters, Mmes. de Tre- 
lissac and de Sabatier, who took Stephanie with them, 
first to Castelsarrasin, then to Perigueux and later 
to Montauban. Her paternal grandmother, Fanny 
de Beauharnais, occupied herself at Cubieres with 
poetry and flirtations, her father was an emigre, 
and her grandfather, Marquis de Marnesia, was 
travelling in America, so that, save for the kindness 
of Lady de Bath, the child would have been left to 
public charity. One day, in the beginning of the 
consulate, Josephine happened to speak of her little 
cousin before her husband, and Bonaparte, who 
thought so much of ties of blood, was indignant at 
his wife for leaving one of her name to the care of 
a stranger and an Englishwoman. He immediately 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 159 

sent for the child, but the nuns refused to deliver 
her to the messenger, whereupon he sent a courier 
armed with legal authority to take Stephanie de 
Beauharnais, and the sisters were forced to obey, 
though not without tears and grave misgivings. 
Upon her arrival in Paris the child was placed with 
Mme. Campan, and thenceforth she was one of the 
little group of young girls who came to Malmaison 
each decadi (the republican day of rest), and whose 
white-robed forms and cheery laughter enlivened 
the park as they flitted about under the shade of 
the great chestnut trees. Both Josephine and Hor- 
tense were extremely kind to Stephanie, but she did 
not appear on gala days, had no rank, was of no 
importance, and seemed destined to such a marriage 
as had been arranged for her cousin Emilie de Beau- 
harnais, Mme. Lavallette ; the little lady, however, 
did not take that view of the situation, but assumed 
the airs of a princess and treated those of her relations 
who were not honored with a lodging in the imperial 
palace very haughtily. 

Such was the situation when Eugene married and 
it became necessary to provide a wife for the Prince 
of Baden ; Napoleon first thought of another ward 
of Josephine's, her niece, Stephanie Tascher, but 
afterwards decided upon Stephanie de Beauharnais, 
and the arrangements for the marriage were defi- 



160 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

nitely concluded by him while on his way to Carls- 
ruhe, on the 20th of January, 1806, and were con- 
firmed by an agreement signed at Paris on the iTth 
of February. 

Stephanie was at that time seventeen years of 
age, was clever, bright and gay, with a certain child- 
ishness of manner which was very taking ; she had 
rather a pretty face, a fine complexion, sparkling 
blue eyes and beautiful blonde hair. Upon the Em- 
peror's return to Paris she was taken from her 
boarding-school to the Tuileries and installed in an 
apartment near that of the Empress and became at 
once the life of the palace ; gay, piquant and agree- 
able, she enlivened the dreary salons, and not being 
in the least embarrassed by the Emperor she indulged 
her mischievousness as freely in his presence as else- 
where, which greatly pleased and amused him ; she 
was not long in perceiving this and increased her 
efforts to divert him, and they were soon engaged in 
a lively flirtation. Possibly Napoleon hoped for 
something more, but Mile, de Beauharnais was not so 
inclined ; she only wished for distraction and to make 
the most of Napoleon's friendship and admiration 
without compromising herself ; she was well aware 
that it was not because she was Mile, de Beauharnais 
that she was to espouse the Prince of Baden, but 
because she was a Napoleonite, that the manner of 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 161 

her reception by the prince's family depended en- 
tirely upon the Emperor, and that it was therefore 
prudent to find out how much he would do for her. 

Stephanie's struggle was not with the Empress, 
but with the sisters of Napoleon, who had no inten- 
tion of yielding her precedence, and who, Caroline 
Murat particularly, snubbed her mercilessly, but 
little Stephanie made light of their rudeness and 
laughed gayly at everything until Caroline, exas- 
perated, became insolent. One evening, while they 
were waiting for the Emperor, Stephanie seated 
herself on a folding chair, upon which the Princess 
Caroline ordered her to rise, saying, that it was not 
customary for young persons to remain seated in 
the presence of the Emperor's sisters ; Stephanie 
rose immediately, but she no longer laughed, on the 
contrary, she wept bitterly ; the Emperor, entering 
at that moment, perceived her tears, and inquired 
their source. " Is that all ! " he exclaimed when 
Stephanie told her grievance, ''well, come and sit 
on my knee, and you won't incommode anybody ! " 

This anecdote is lent an appearance of authen- 
ticity by a note which is found upon the register of 
the master of ceremonies : " Our will is, that the 
Princess Stephanie-Napoleon, our daughter, shall in 
all circles enjoy all the privileges due her rank, and 

that at fetes and at table she shall be seated at our 
11 



162 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

side, and in case we are not present that she shall 
be placed at the Empress' right hand." This ga\^ 
Stephanie precedence over the Emperor's sisters, 
sisters-in-law, Hortense, and even over the Princess 
Augusta of Bavaria. 

On the following day a message announced to 
the senate the adoption of Stephanie de Beauharnais 
and her approaching marriage with the Prince of 
Baden, and ordered the State to send a deputation 
to pay her respects, in which ceremony M. Claude 
de Beauharnais, the princess's own father, figured 
conspicuously. 

M. de Beauharnais, on his return from exile, had 
entered the senate, and was then a member of some 
years' standing, with a salary of twenty-five thousand 
francs a year, and he was about to enjoy the bene- 
fits accruing from the parentage of a charming 
daughter. Napoleon appointed him to the senator- 
ship of Amiens, which brought him an income of 
twenty-five thousand francs ; in 1807 endowed him 
with twenty-five thousand eight hundred and eighty- 
two francs, and in 1810 made him chevalier d' 
honneur to Marie-Louise, a position which com- 
manded a salary of thirty thousand francs, and on 
the 22d of September, 1807, made him a personal 
present of two hundred thousand francs ; but all 
this was a mere bagatelle in comparison with what 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 163 

I 

the Emperor did for Stephanie. He took a personal 
interest in her trousseau, ordering for her a tulle 
dress covered with an embroidery of gold thread 
and interwoven with precious stones, the cost of 
which was twenty-four thousand francs ; from Le- 
normand he commanded twelve dresses, at prices 
ranging from nineteen hundred to twelve hundred 
francs ; from Leroy he commanded forty-five 
thousand, one hundred and seventy-eight francs and 
ninety-six centimes' worth of millinery and trinkets, 
and from Roux-Montagnat, two thousand, five 
hundred and seventy-four francs' worth of artificial 
flowers ; in addition to all this he gave her a dot of 
fifteen hundred thousand francs, a superb parure 
of diamonds, and presented her with a thousand 
louts from his private purse. 

Both the civil and religious marriages were 
celebrated with the utmost pomp and magnificence ; 
Napoleon could not have done more for his own 
child, and the festivities were not confined to the 
palace, but overfiowed into the city, which was il- 
luminated by fireworks set off on the Place de la 
Concorde. When the last spark had died, the last 
note of the band had sounded, and the guests had 
departed, the Emperor and Empress, according to 
usage, conducted the bride and groom to the bridal 
chamber, but it was found impossible to induce 



164 NAPOLEON, LOVEJR AND HUSBAND. 

Stephanie to occupy it ; she wept and sobbed, and 
insisted that her school- fellow, Mile. Nelly Bour- 
joUy, should sleep with her. The court went to 
Malmaison on the following day, but Stephanie, in 
spite of all the arguments brought to bear upon her, 
still remained obdurate. Some one told the prince 
that his wife's repugnance arose from the manner 
in which he dressed his hair, as she detested a cue, 
thereupon he had his hair cut short ; but as soon as 
Stephanie perceived him she burst out laughing and 
declared that he was uglier than before. Night 
after night the prince went to her door, supplicat- 
ing and praying for admittance, and at last ex- 
hausted threw himself upon a couch in the ante- 
chamber and fell asleep ; in the morning he went 
and complained to the Empress, while Napoleon 
smilingly watched the couple who naturally were 
the talk of the chateau. 

That this state of affairs gave the Emperor a 
certain amount of satisfaction, that he bore 
Stephanie no ill-will was proved by the superb fete 
which he gave at the Tuileries in honor of her 
marriage : the first great ball to which not only 
the court but the gentry of the city were bidden. 
Nothing equalling the two quadrilles — one in the 
gallery of Diana conducted by the Princess 
Louise, the other in the Salle des Marechaux, con- 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 165 

ducted by the Princess Caroline— had ever been 
seen, while the lavishness of the refreshments set 
all the world talking : there were sixty entrees^ 
sixty roasts and two hundred desserts ; one thousand 
bottles of Beaune, one hundred of Champagne, one 
hundred of Bordeaux and one hundred of sweet 
wines were consumed ; but the festivities did not 
soften Stephanie's heart. 

Political reasons intervening, Napoleon saw him- 
self obliged to interfere. Mile, de Beauharnais' co- 
queteries had amused him and supplied a pretext 
for teasing his wife, but he had permitted himself 
rather too much latitude in according to the young 
girl a rank disproportionate to her birth and fortune 
and in celebrating her marriage in princely style ; 
he now saw that the patience of the ruler of Baden 
was nearly exhausted, and, as a war with Prussia 
was imminent, felt it expedient to conciliate all the 
German princes who might become auxiliaries, or at 
least give valuable information. 

Having respected Stephanie previous to her mar- 
riage, he did not afterwards meditate making her 
his mistress, and the flirtation which was suitable 
neither to his dignity, his age nor his temperament, 
grew wearisome, and it was becoming embarrassing 
to have her longer at Paris, while she might be of 
service at Carlsruhe, if only in counterbalancing 



166 JSTAPOLEOlSr, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

the hostile influence of Markgraf Louis and the 
little German court. 

Napoleon hardly took time to investigate the little 
stories contained in certain intercepted letters, which 
proved only too plainly what an inhospitable recep- 
tion awaited his adopted daughter, but hastened 
her departure. Stephanie left France despairing ; 
she took with her three of her school-friends : Miles, 
de Mackau, BourjoUy and Grruau, and as soon as 
she arrived in her father-in-law's principality, she 
wrote to the Emperor : " Sire, each day when I am 
at liberty I think of you and the Empress, of all 
who are dearest to me ; in imagination, I am in 
France and near you, and I find a certain pleasure in 
my sadness." Napoleon responded rather severely, 
without making use of any paternal or tender ex- 
pressions. " Carlsruhe," he wrote, " is a charming 
place of residence. Make yourself agreeable to the 
Elector, who is now your father, and love your hus- 
band, who merits your affection by the tenderness 
he lavishes upon you." When she had answered in 
a manner which pleased him, saying that she was 
contented at Carlsruhe, Napoleon wrote more 
kindly, calling her daughter, but recommending the 
same line of conduct ; and he did not become thor- 
oughly amiable until the hereditary grand duke 
asked him to make the campaign with him, and in 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 167 

the same letter announced that Stephanie was about 
to become a mother ; then he wrote, saying: "I 
only hear good news of you and hope you will con- 
tinue to be kind and gentle to all who surround 
you ; " he then authorized her to rejoin the Empress 
and Hortense at Mayence, and to remain with them 
while her husband was with the army, and there- 
after, to all his letters to Josephine he added a 
kindly message for Stephanie. In 1807, Stephanie 
and her husband were invited to Paris on the oc- 
casion of the marriage of Jerome Bonaparte with 
Catherine of Wurtemberg, and she hastened to 
accept ; but if she retained any illusion concerning 
the Emperor's affection and the exceptional rank 
which only a year previous he had bestowed upon 
her, she must have been cruelly disappointed, for 
the place assigned her was the very last among the 
princesses, and it was only by courtesy that she took 
a place in the Imperial family ; by favor that she 
was given a folding-chair when the family were 
seated. She had become a princess of the German 
confederation, and had there been any of the reign- 
ing German princesses present, they would have 
taken precedence over her. At first Stephanie did 
not seem to perceive her downfall, and took pleas- 
ure in flirting with Jerome, the new King of West- 
phalia, but her aunt remarking upon her conduct, 



168 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

the situation became clear, and realizing that she 
could only hold her position through her husband, 
she managed to inspire him with so much affection 
that he became unsupportably jealous. 

Did the prince stand by Stephanie in 1814, when, 
after the Emperor's downfall, he was urged to re- 
pudiate her and turn out of the palace of Zaehrin- 
gen this unwelcome witness to broken oaths, whose 
presence constantly recalled favors whose authors 
the reigning house of Baden desired to forget? 
"Was it because of his fidelity that at the age of 
thirty-two, this man, previously in the most vigor- 
ous health, fell suddenly ill, and after dragging for 
a year died of a strange malady in 1818 ? Stephanie, 
although the mother of numerous children, was un- 
able to preserve one son ; when she lost the second, 
or believed him dead, she wrote broken-heartedly to 
the Emperor : "I was so happy to tell your Majesty 
that I had a son and to beseech your protection for 
him. A son made me forget my griefs and was 
necessary to my position which is often a difficult 
one — now I have lost my only hope ! " She grieved 
unceasingly over the fatality which followed her sons 
and took from her race, stricken because of her 
with political sterility, the heredity of the throne of 
Baden. 

Ten years after the death of the grand duke, be- 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 169 

tween four and five o'clock on the morning of the 
26th of May, 1828, a bourgeois met a yonng man of 
seventeen, who muttered only one or two phrases 
in low German in the Tallow Market of Nuremberg ; 
the youth had never walked, his eyes had never 
seen the sun's light, his stomach was unable to sup- 
port animal food, but he would never have been 
thus deformed had he not since babyhood been 
sequestered in solitude and obscurity. Stephanie 
was the first to ponder, calculate, and be convinced 
that the mysterious and unknown youth at Nuren- 
berg, who was called Kaspar Hauser, was her own 
son — her child, in whose place a dead baby had 
been substituted, and who, a victim to the hatred 
of Markgraf Louis, and the ambition of Countess 
Hochberg, had for nearly sixteen years expiated in 
darkness and solitude the sin of having a Napoleon- 
ite for his mother. Poor Stephanie was unable to 
do anything, for her enemies were triumphant and 
powerful ; one reigned upon the throne of Baden, 
and she could tremble for Kaspar Hauser, and weep 
over his sad fate, when, after escaping three ambus- 
cades, he was finally assassinated. 

Was hers one of those illusions with which a 
mother loves to comfort her heart, or one of those 
revelations, which, better than all the investigations 
of justice, sometimes throw light upon a great 



170 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

crime? However this may be, Stephanie firmly 
beheved to her last hour (she died on the 29th of 
January, 1860), that Kaspar Hauser was her lost 
son, and to the few friends whom she received in 
the tumble-down palace of Mannheim, she asserted 
that her son did not die in 1812, but that he had 
been stolen from her, designating the authors and 
accomplices in the crime. Some German authors 
have attempted to demonstrate that the poor 
mother deceived herself ; for the credit of the reign- 
ing house of Baden, it is to be hoped she did. 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 171 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

ELEONORE. 

Towards the close of the revolution, Mme. Cam- 
pan, once a confidential member of Marie Antoi- 
nette's household, established a school for young 
ladies at Saint-Germain-en-Laye ; Josephine became 
the patroness of the institution, and there her 
daughter and nieces were educated. This group of 
young girls, so closely allied to the imperial family, 
drew around them the daughters of those who had, 
or sought for, some appointment under the Con- 
sulate, and Mme. Campan's nieces making excel- 
lent marriages, thanks to their intimacy with Hor- 
tense, the school was still further augmented by 
the daughters of intriguing parents who hoped 
their children might also profit by the acquaintance 
of their royal school-fellows. 

Mme. Campan was supposedly an infiuential per- 
son, having obtained positions for numerous people, 
pardons for exiles and the restitution of confiscated 
property ; her school was the fashionable one of the 



172 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

day, and on the list of pupils can be seen, side by 
side with names of people who had recently at- 
tained eminence, the old historical ones of Noailles, 
Talon, Lally-Tollendal, and Eochemond, 

After the Consulate, the reputation of the school 
diminished somewhat, and among the scholars there 
was a young girl of whose origin Mme. Campan 
was somewhat in ignorance, and who could prob- 
ably never have been a pupil had the principal 
then been as strict regarding the parentage of those 
whom she admitted as she was in the days of the 
school's great popularity. This young lady was 
Mile. Louise-Catherine-Eleonore Denuelle de La 
Plaigne. The father claimed to be a man of wealth, 
but his business ventures were not always success- 
ful ; the mother, who was still very pretty, was 
rather gay, and the family lived in a sumptuous 
apartment on the Boulevard des Italiens, received a 
great deal of rather mixed company, and managed 
as best they could from day to day, awaiting the 
time when their daughter should make a rich mar- 
riage. 

Time passed, Mme. Denuelle aged, the father ran 
into debt, the quarterly tuition was hard to pay, 
and, moreover, since the departure of the Beauhar- 
nais from Mme. Campan's, the chances of meeting 
a desirable par if ie in that establishment, had greatly 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 173 

diminished ; so, as Mme. Denuelle had not access to 
salons where her daughter might have made such 
acquaintances, she determined to show her at the 
theatres. One evening at the G-aite, a good-looking 
officer entered the box where Mme Denuelle and 
her daughter occupied seats, and took the vacant 
place ; the ladies were not haughty, the officer was 
gallant, and an acquaintance grew apace. 

Mme. Denuelle invited the young man to visit 
them and he did not fail to do so ; he soon became 
so enamored of Eleonore as to ask her hand in mar- 
riage, and the wedding took place on the fifteenth 
of January, 1805, at Saint-Germain. 

This officer, Jean-Honore-Frangois Revel, who 
claimed to be a captain of the 15th regiment of 
dragoons and the aide-de-camp of General d' Avrange 
d'Haugeranville, was a knave. He had resigned 
from the regiment of which he was once quarter- 
master, and claimed that he expected to get a con- 
tract for supplying the army with provisions ; in the 
meanwhile he lived on credit. He appears to have 
counted more upon the beauty of his young wife to 
extricate him from his embarrassment than upon 
any efforts of his own, and two months after the 
wedding he was arrested and imprisoned for at- 
tempting to pass a forged check. 

Eleonore then bethought herself that the Princess 



174 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

Caroline Murat had been her school- fellow, and, 
warmly recommended by Mme. Campan, solicited 
her highness' protection. The princess first placed 
her in a sort of asylum at Chantilly, where unfor- 
tunate women like herself were received ; later, in 
despite of Mme. Campan's advice, she yielded to 
Eleonore's solicitations and installed her in her own 
household. 

Mme. Revel was an extremely handsome brunette, 
tall and graceful, with large, dark eyes and a lively, 
coquettish manner ; she had not been educated to 
entertain scruples, and she certainly had not ac- 
quired any in the two months she spent with Bevel. 
At first her duty was to announce the princess' 
guests, later she was promoted to the dignity of 
reader, and when, after the Emperor's return from 
Austerlitz towards the end of January, 1806, he 
came to visit his sister, Mme. Eleonore deftly 
managed to make herself noticeable and as soon as 
propositions were made to her accepted with en- 
thusiasm, and allowed herself to be conducted to 
the Tuileries ; from thenceforth she went there 
habitually, spending two or three hours in the 
Emperor's society. 

Revel had been condemned by the criminal court 
to two years' imprisonment, and on the 13th of 
April his wife asked for a divorce, which was 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 175 

granted on the 29th of April, 1806 ; it was high 
time, for on the 13th of December, 1806, at No. 29 
rue de la Victoire, she was delivered of a male child 
who was registered as ''Leon, son of Mile. Denuelle, 
property-holder, aged twenty, and of an absent 
father." 

There was no doubt as to the child's parentage ; 
Eleonore who in her prayer for divorce had stated 
that she was " attached to the person of Mme. la 
Princess Caroline," had, from the time she returned 
from Chantilly, lived in a small house in the rue de 
Provence, which she never left save for her visits 
to the Tuileries — visits of which Caroline knew the 
secret — moreover, the child's resemblance to Napo- 
leon was so striking as to confute doubt. Thus the 
event which Josephine so dreaded came to pass ; 
the charm was broken, for henceforth the Emperor 
entertained no doubts regarding his ability to pro- 
vide an heir to the throne. 

The Emperor was at Pulstuck, when, on the 31st 
of December, the news of Eleonore's accouchement 
reached him, and doubtless the birth of this illegiti- 
mate son was strongly instrumental in the forma- 
tion of plans which two years later he carried into 
execution. 

The child Leon was at first confided to the care of 
Mme. Loir, foster-mother of Achille Murat ; later, 



176 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

in 1812, M. Mathieu de Mauvieres, mayor of the 
commune of Saint-Forget, baron of the Empire and 
father-in-law of Meneval, the Emperor's private 
secretary, was appointed guardian to the boy, and 
an independent fortune was settled upon him by his 
imperial father. Not content with this, in January, 
1814, when about to leave Paris to join the army, 
Napoleon authorized the Duke de Bassano to add 
twelve thousand pounds income, and to this, on the 
21st of June, 1815, was added canal stock valued at 
one hundred thousand francs, and finally, actuated 
by conscience, the Emperor added a codicil to his 
will in which he bequeathed to Leon three hundred 
and twenty thousand francs for the purchase of a 
country seat, and as long as he lived interested 
himself in his son's welfare. The thirty-seventh 
paragraph of his testamentary instructions to his 
executors, proves that the lad was never forgotten : 
*'If his taste runs in that direction," wrote Napo- 
leon, " I should be pleased to have little Leon enter 
the magistracy." 

To avoid a rupture with Josephine, to whom he 
was still sincerely attached, and at the same time 
to comply with the law of heredity in a manner 
which seemed to him both satisfactory and natural. 
Napoleon conceived the idea of adopting his natural 
son, spoke of it to the Empress, sounded many of 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 177 

his confidants on the subject, and invoked precedents 
to justify his incHnation. That he did not carry 
these plans into execution is probably due to the 
fact that he realized that the days of Louis XIV. 
were past, and that the country would not permit 
him to follow the example given by that monarch, 
who had designated the Duke de Maine and the 
Comte de Toulouse as his heirs to the throne. 

Napoleon became very much attached to this 
child, and frequently had him brought either to the 
Elysee or to his sister Caroline's, sometimes re- 
ceived him even at the Tuileries while dressing or 
at breakfast ; he played with him, gave him dainties 
to eat and was amused by Leon's childish chatter. 
As time passed Napoleon was necessarily unable to 
bestow the same personal attention upon Leon, but 
in 1815 he recommended the boy to the care of his 
mother and Cardinal Fesch. Mme. Bonaparte was 
already interested in the boy and seemed disposed 
to do a great deal for him, but unfortunately Leon's 
was not a character to inspire warm affection. 

In 1832 — he was then twenty-five — Denuelle was 
already nearly ruined, owing to his passion for 
gambling, and applied for assistance to Cardinal 
Fesch, swearing that he would never again lose 
forty-five thousand francs at a sitting. It was a 
gambler's oath, for a year later he was as badly off 



178 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

as ever, attempting to brazen out his affairs, mixing 
with visionary politicians and engaging right and 
left in duels, for he was brave and somewhat of a 
bully. In 1834, by trading on the name of the 
grand man to whom he owed his existence, he was 
elected chief of the communal battalion of the 
national guards of Saint-Denis ; he was soon sus- 
pended for disobedience to orders, but afterwards 
reinstated, and attempted to justify himself by the 
publication of a number of pamphlets, which are, 
however, so hazy that they could hardly have served 
to clear his character before the public. In 1840 he 
was one of the official cortege on the return from 
Cendres, and, being absolutely ruined, began a series 
of lawsuits against his mother with the intention 
of wringing money from her, she having preserved 
her fortune intact. 

The Emperor had never renewed his relations 
with Leon's mother, had, indeed, refused to receive 
her when, in 180Y, she presented herself at Fontaine- 
bleau, but he acquitted his debt to her by giving her 
a house in the rue de laVictoire,and a dot of twenty- 
two thousand pounds, which was not transferable. 
She married, in 1808, a lieutenant of infantry, M. 
Pierre-Philippe Augier, who took her to Spain with 
him, and who died in captivity after the Eussian 
campaign. Eleonore was not inconsolable, for at 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 179 

Seckenheim, on the 25th of May, 1814, she was mar- 
ried for the third time to M. Charles- Auguste-Emile, 
Count de Luxbourg, and a major in the service of 
the king of Bavaria. Eeturning to Paris with her 
third husband she was obliged to combat the first, 
for Eevel, profiting by the fall of Napoleon, posed 
as a victim and essayed to blackmail his ex-wife ; 
Mme. de Luxbourg resisted, and Eevel, to avenge 
himself and to make a few pennies, published in- 
numerable pamphlets whose titles were startling, 
and admirably combined to attract attention and 
create a scandal, but he was defeated in everything 
he attempted against his former wife. Leon was 
somewhat more fortunate in his suits against his 
mother, for, although he lost a suit wherein he 
charged her with swindling and attempted to force 
her to render an account of her income, he succeeded 
in having himself acknowledged as her natural son, 
and on the second of July, 1846, he obtained a lump 
sum of four thousand francs instead of the yearly 
allowance which he had sued for. In 1848 he seems 
to have been somewhat better off financially, for he 
meditated persenting himself as a candidate for the 
presidency of the Eepublic in competition with the 
Prince Louis Napoleon, with whom, eight years 
previous, in March, 1840, he had been ambitious to 
fight a duel. Leon's conduct in this respect was so 



180 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

singular that it can only be explained by the sup- 
position that he was mentally deranged. In 1848 
he put forth his claims in a manifesto beginning : 
"Citizen Leon, ex-count Leon, son of the Emperor 
Napoleon, director of the Pacific Society, to the 
French people." 

The empire re-installed, Denuelle obtained from 
Napoleon III, a pension of six thousand francs, and 
the payment of Napoleon's first legacy to him of two 
hundred and twenty-five thousand, three hundred 
and nineteen francs, but that did not content him, 
and in 1853 he reclaimed five hundred and seventy- 
two thousand, six hundred and seventy francs in 
virtue of some visionary decree, and in 1857 sued the 
minister of Public Works for the sum of five hundred 
thousand francs, which he claimed was due him for 
draughts made by him for the chemin de fer du 
Nord. Not a year passed that he did not bring for- 
ward some claim or petition, and the civil list paid 
his debts five or six times ; but he was irrepressible 
and his brain was in a state of perpetual evolution 
up to the time of his death, which occurred at Pon- 
toise on the 15th of April, 1881. 



lilAPOLEON, LOVEii AND HT7SBAND 181 



CHAPTER XIV. 

H O R T e[n S E . 

The year 180T was a decisive one in the life of 
Napoleon ; the month of January being marked by 
the birth of Leon, which gave to him the certitude 
that he could have a direct heir, and May by the 
death of Napoleon- Charles, eldest son of Louis and 
Hortense. With him died Napoleon's dream of 
creating an heredity by adoption, and the child's 
death was also a sad blow to his affections. Napo- 
leon-Charles had been doubly dear to the Emperor, 
being the son of the girl, who, from the moment he 
met her, had taken such a hold upon his heart that 
he had accorded to her tears the pardon refused her 
mother, and to whom he had been both father and 
guardian. Napoleon-Charles was the child also of 
his best-loved brother, ''the little brother" who 
had been to him almost as a son, whom he had 
lodged, fed and educated when he had but a lieu- 
tenant's scanty pay ; whom he had made his aide-de- 
camp and the witness of his victories, whom he had 



182 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

ennobled as he himself rose in rank, until he stood 
close to the throne. In his nephew Napoleon saw 
all the characteristics of the Bonapartes, undis- 
figured by Louis' blobber-lip and ugly nose, and un- 
beautified by the slender grace of his mother's 
family, but a Bonaparte through and through, 
idealized only by an aureole of golden hair. To this 
child, the first male of his generation. Napoleon had 
given his father's name, and he had shown such a 
lively affection for the boy that gossips had begun 
by insinuating, and had finally asserted, that he was 
the child's real father, that his step-daughter had 
been his mistress before becoming Louis' wife. 

Hortense's marriage-contract was signed on the 
3d of January, 1802, the marriage celebrated on 
the 4:th, and her son was born on the 10th of October, 
1802, therefore she was certainly not enceinte when 
she married, since there were two hundred and 
eighty days between the time she was wed and the 
birth of her child. 

Louis Bonaparte was the most jealous and sus- 
picious of husbands ; he tyrannized over his wife 
from the hour of their marriage ; he never left her, 
had her constantly under surveillance, and forbade 
her to pass even one night at Saint- Cloud. Suffer- 
ing from an illness due to youthful indiscretions, he 
at first essayed to effect a cure by taking tripe baths. 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 183 

the stench of which infected the old orangery which 
stood at the end of the Terrasse des Feuillant ; later, 
to draw out the humor, he slept in the night-gown 
and sheets which had previously served a hospital 
patient afflicted with the itch, and he obliged his 
wife to sleep on a little bed in the same room with 
him. Every maid who showed the slightest affec- 
tion for Hortense was pitilessly discharged ; his 
mother-in-law was a target for the gravest accusa- 
tions, yet Louis had never the slightest doubt of his 
wife's virtue. In his ''Documents Historiques sur 
la Hollande,^'' he affirms that he was the father of the 
three children whom his wife and he "loved with 
equal tenderness ; " this affirmation he repeated both 
in prose and in verse, for he thought himself a poet ; 
and when, on the Emperor's proposal to adopt 
Napoleon-Charles, Louis alluded to the current 
reports regarding the boy's paternity, it was not be- 
cause he attached the slightest importance to them, 
but because they served as a pretext for not yielding 
to his brother's wishes. Louis-Napoleon had an un- 
fortunately melancholy and peculiar disposition, but 
he loved his son as much as he could love any one, 
and the child's death was a severe trial ; after this 
loss he was for a time reconciled to Hortense, with 
whom he previously lived so unhappily that his 
imperial brother had more than once seen fit to 



184 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

remonstrate with him, and he wrote kind and affec- 
tionate letters to Josephine, whom ordinarily he 
detested. Shortly after the death of her son, Hor- 
tense, who was in poor health, went to Cauterets 
accompanied by her husband, and it was there, 
under circumstances the details of which are well- 
known, that she became enceinte with her third son, 
Charles-Louis-Napoleon, afterwards known as Na- 
poleon III. ; thus Louis Bonaparte never believed 
for an instant that Hortense had been his brother's 
mistress, and not only did he bear witness to his 
faith in her virtue, but his conduct was an affirma- 
tion of his convictions ; as for Hortense, until 1809, 
she remained ignorant that such gossip was afloat. 

Josephine's marriage with General Bonaparte had 
wounded her daughter to the quick, for she felt it 
to be almost a crime for her mother to wed one who 
was a soldier under the Republic, a man whose 
political principles were similar to those entertained 
by the men who had caused her father's execution. 
Previous to her mother's marriage, Hortense lived 
at Saint- Germain-en-Laye, near her grandfather, 
the Marquis de Beauharnais and her aunt, Mme. 
Renaudin, whom he had recently married. At 
the beginning of the Consulate she was entered 
at Mme. Campan's, and she did not go to live at the 
Tuileries until about the time when the Consul left 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HFSBAND. 185 

France for Marengo ; thus it was not until Bona- 
parte returned from Italy that Hortense saw him 
continually and familiarly. 

Napoleon always entertained a tender and pa- 
ternal affection for his wife's daughter, which she 
returned only with timid respect ; she trembled when 
addressing him, dared ask nothing of him, and 
when obliged to make a request employed inter- 
mediaries. " The little goose," Napoleon frequently 
said, '' why don't she speak to me ; why is the child 
so afraid of me ? " He did not interfere when 
Josephine arranged the marriage between her 
daughter and Louis Bonaparte, because he hoped 
that this marriage might unite his own family and 
that of his wife, and foresaw that it might be 
politically judicious, and he also felt a delicacy in 
interfering with any of Josephine's plans for her 
children ; but whenever he thought it necessary he 
did not hesitate to counsel Louis as to his conduct 
towards Hortense, and with the most admirable 
tact and delicacy strove to calm his jealous fears 
and point out to him wherein his conduct was faulty. 
He pitied his step-daughter, venerated her, and 
guarded his speech in her presence ; on more than 
one occasion he said: ''Hortense obliges me to 
believe in virtue." 

Napoleon was not ignorant of the rumors which 



186 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

were afloat regarding his relations with his step- 
daughter, rumors which some of those who were 
very near to him were assiduous in spreading and 
which were amplified by the English papers. In 
order to put a stop to the calumnies he bethought 
himself of a plan which does greater credit to his 
knightly intentions than to his discrimination ; he 
commanded a ball to be given at Malmaison, and 
that Hortense, although then in her seventh month, 
should assist at it ; he invited her to dance, but 
Hortense declined, alleging that she was weary, 
although in reality her refusal arose from her 
knowledge of her stepfather's dislike of seeing 
women who were enceinte upon the floor of a ball- 
room, above all, when, as was the fashion of the 
time, they were clothed in such clinging garments 
that the outlines of the figure were plainly discern- 
ible. The Emperor, however, insisted, asking simply 
for a contredance, and, after persisting for some time 
in her refusal, she finally yielded. The following 
morning a newspaper published some gallant verses 
upon the subject, and Hortense, furious, complained 
to the Emperor, but received no satisfaction ; the 
truth being that the ball had been given solely to 
furnish occasion for the verses, and so force the 
public to acknowledge that she was not so far ad- 
vanced in pregnancy as was currently reported ; 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 187 

it was with this view also that the Moniteur, which 
up to that time had never spoken of the Consul's 
family, inserted In its edition of October 12th, 
1802, the following announcement : "^On the 10th 
inst., at 9 o'clock in the evening, a son was born to 
Monsieur and Madame Louis Bonaparte." 

Napoleon did all in his power to crush the cal- 
umny, but his efforts proved unavailing ; so he grad- 
ually accustomed himself to look upon the report 
from a political standpoint and cogitated how he 
might turn it to account. He felt an almost pa- 
ternal affection for Napoleon-Charles, and some of 
the happiest hours of his life were spent in play 
with him ; it delighted him to hear the child cry : 
"Long live Nanon the soldier !" when he saw a 
grenadier pass, and he frequently had the little 
fellow sit by his side while he dined, being highly 
amused by the child's desire to touch everything 
and by the agility with which he seized" and upset 
everything within reach of his baby hands. The 
Emperor frequently took Napoleon- Charles to the 
garden to feed tobacco to the gazelles, and, seating 
him astride one of them, would roar with laughter 
at the baby's antics ; he often sent for the child 
when in his dressing-room, and, after caressing him 
and making the most extraordinary grimaces for 
his amusement, would end by sitting down upon 



188 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

the floor, the better to play with him. Napoleon 
loved the little nephew, whom the people claimed 
was his own son, as though he were verily bone of 
his bone and flesh of his flesh, and therefore the 
idea of adopting him as his heir was not repugnant, 
even if by so doing the people were convinced of the 
truth of their suppositions. In this lad he believed 
they would find impersonated the characteristics of 
his race and his own genius, and that they could 
not claim that the line which he had founded was 
built upon a fiction. It must be admitted that this 
plan was contrary to all established ideas, but Napo- 
leon had no prejudices and believed that his excep- 
tional destiny placed him above humanity at large, 
that the nation would not judge him according to 
accepted moral formulas, and that the people's de- 
sire to assure the stability of his government would 
cause them to overlook the unconventionality of the 
proceeding, the more easily as they could not confirm 
the existing suspicion. 

It must not be supposed that it is upon simple 
supposition only that we accredit the Emperor with 
these ideas and projects ; we base our statements 
upon a conversation which he had with Hortense, 
two years after the death of her son, and which is 
related at length in her unpublished memoires. He 
then spoke freely to his step-daughter regarding the 



NAPOLEOISr, LOVER AND HUSBAJSTD. 189 

consequences attendant upon the death of Napoleon- 
Charles, who, as he said, was thought to be his 
son as well as hers. " You know," Napoleon said, 
" how absurd such a supposition is, but you could 
not convince all Europe that the child was not 
mine," he stopped a moment, arrested by a move- 
ment of surprise from Hortense, then continued : 
" Your reputation does not suffer on this account, 
as you are generally esteemed ; nevertheless, the 
idea receives credence everywhere ; it was perhaps 
best that it was so, and for that reason I regard his 
death as a great misfortune." " I was so surprised," 
wrote Hortense, "that I was unable to utter a 
word, I no longer heard what he said. That reflec- 
tion, ' it was perhaps best that it was believed, ' tore 
a veil from before my eyes and pierced me to the 
heart ; was it possible that he who had been so kind 
and generous, in whom I seemed to find my own 
lost father, had been actuated throughout by po- 
litical motives and not by affection ! " 

Hortense was mistaken, for if Napoleon had been 
actuated by policy he also was moved by affection, 
but her indignation was quite natural, considering 
that she looked upon the situation from a woman's 
point of view, and was unable to conceive of the 
profound subtlety of Napoleon's reasoning. If he 
had showered kindnesses and attentions upon Hor- 



190 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

tense it had not been in order to confirm the story 
that Napoleon-Charles was his son, on the contrary 
he had made every effort to refute it ; but the gossip 
persisting and a conviction of its truth being firmly 
established in the public mind he had sought to 
utilize it for his own interests and the consolidation 
of his dynasty ; it was a battlefield inspiration 
which he had had, for one of his most remarkable 
faculties was the ability to look situations clearly in 
the face, to discern at a glance precisely where he 
stood, make the best of affairs, and act promptly 
upon his intuitions. 

It was owing to his belief in a philosophical ac- 
ceptance of all situations, that, while he felt 
keenly the loss of Napoleon-Charles, he accepted 
the inevitable with calmness. The remark, "I 
have not time to indulge in sentimental regrets 
like other men," has been accredited him ; it might 
better be admitted that the death of his poor lit- 
tle nephew was a grief to him, for he wrote to all 
his correspondents, at least twenty times to Jose- 
phine, six or seven to Hortense, and severally to 
Joseph, Jerome, Fouch^ and Monge, expressing his 
sorrow, but adding, " that it was destiny." It was 
not in Napoleon's nature, nor in accordance with the 
philosophical formula which the continual spectacle 
of war and death in all its most terrible forms had 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 191 

imposed upon his spirit, to yield to idle tears when 
a destiny was accomplished, 

Napoleon-Charles was one of the ties which at- 
tached Bonaparte to Josephine, and this tie broken 
there only remained between '.hem those bonds of 
tenderness which were woven by ten years of 
wedded life ; years broken by long absences, marred 
by frequent quarrels and strange misunderstand- 
ings. Could these bonds resist such a strain as 
they were subjected to in 1805 by his liaison with 
Madame * * * * ? 



192 NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MADAME WAIxEWSKA. 

On the 1st of January, 1807, the Emperor, on his 
way from Pulstuck to Warsaw, stopped to change 
post-horses at the little town of Bronie ; a noisy and 
enthusiastic crowd awaited the liberator of Poland, 
and rushed to surround the imperial carriage as 
soon as it came in sight. As the carriage stopped 
before the post-house. General Duroc descended and 
cleared an entrance ; he was about to pass the door 
when he hfeard a cry of entreaty, saw hands lifted 
in supplication, and a voice addressing him in 
French, said : " Oh, sir, pray get us out of this 
crowd, and arrange so that I may obtain even a 
glimpse of His Majesty ! " Duroc paused and look- 
ing about saw that the demand came from two 
ladies, who seemed sadly out of place in the multi- 
tude of peasants and workmen ; the one who spoke 
to him seemed almost a child, she was very fair and 
fragile, with great, blue, innocent-looking eyes which 
at that moment glowed with patriotic enthusiasm ; 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 193 

her skin, of the texture and freshness of a tea-rose, 
was flushed with embarrassment, and her slender 
yet supple and graceful form trembled with excite- 
ment ; she was dressed very simply, and wore a dark 
hat wound about with a black veil. 

Duroc took in the situation at a glance, and extri- 
cating the two ladies from the crowd gave his 
hand to the blonde and led her to the carriage door. 
" Sire," he said to Napoleon, ''deign to greet these 
ladies, who braved the dangers of the crowd to see 
you." 

The Emperor lifted his hat and leaning towards 
the lady began to talk to her, but she, as she 
afterwards recounted, was so excited by the emo- 
tions which agitated her that she did not permit 
him to finish his sentence. "Welcome, Sire," she 
exclaimed, ' ' a thousand times welcome to Poland ! 
Nothing which we can do can sufficiently demon- 
strate the affection we bear you, nor the pleasure 
we Poles feel in having you step upon this land 
which looks to you for deliverance," 

While the lady spoke. Napoleon watched her 
closely, and when she ceased, took a bouquet from 
the carriage, presented it to her and said : "Keep 
this as a guarantee of my good intentions, we shall 
meet at Warsaw, I hope, and I shall reclaim a 
reward from your fair lips." Duroc then took his 



194 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

seat beside the Emperor, and the carriage drove 
rapidly off, while Napoleon waved a parting salute 
to the young woman. 

The person who had made such an effort to see 
the Emperor, and welcome him to Polish soil, was 
Marie Walewska, nee Laczinska, She was the off- 
spring of a very old but poor and numerous family. 
M. Laczinski died when Marie was a baby, leaving 
six children, and the widow, who was absorbed 
in making the best of the small domain which 
constituted their fortune, sent her daughters to 
boarding-school, where they learned to dance, 
acquired a smattering of French and German, and 
a slight knowledge of music. Between fifteen and 
sixteen years of age Marie returned home, with but 
a mediocre education, but with a pure heart, which 
knew but two passions — religion and country — her 
love for her God was balanced by her love for 
Poland ; those were the pivots upon which her 
nature turned, and to arouse her from her usually 
gentle sweetness it sufficed to say that she would 
marry a Eussian or a Prussian, her country's ene- 
mies, a Protestant or schismatic. She had hardly 
returned to her home, when, by a singular chance, she 
had two excellent opportunities for marriage, and 
Mme. Laczinski permitted her daughter to choose 
between the aspirants for her hand. One was a 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AISTD HUSBAND. 195 

charming young man who seemed to have every- 
thing in his favor, and who had pleased her from 
the first ; he was very rich, well-born and remark- 
ably handsome — but he was a Eussian, and a son of 
one of those generals who had cruelly oppressed 
Poland. Marie could not consent to become his 
wife, so her choice fell upon the other suitor, old 
Anastase Colonna de Walewice-Walewska, who was 
seventy years of age, a widower for the second time, 
and whose oldest grandchild was nine years her 
senior, but he was very rich, the Seigneur of the 
province which the Laczinskas inhabited, owned 
most of the land, laid down the laws, inhabited the 
chateau of the neighborhood, and was the only per- 
son who invited his poor neighbors to dinner. He 
had been the late king's chamberlain, and on im- 
portant occasions decorated his coat with the order 
of the White Eagle ; he was the head of one of 
the most illustrious families of Poland, who were 
authentically connected with the Colonnas of Eome 
and bore the same coat-of-arms, and he was of more 
ancient lineage than any other family in the 
kingdom. It was not strange that Mme. Laczinska 
was enchanted at the prospect of having so illustri- 
ous a son-in-law, and Marie made little resistance, 
for her first appeal to her mother was met with 
an unanswerable argument ; she fell ill, however. 



196 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

of an inflammatory fever, and for four months 
hovered between Hfe and death. When barely con- 
valescent she was led to the altar, and the miserable 
young woman spent three years in the dreary cha- 
teau of Walewice, finding her only consolation in 
her religion. At last she gave birth to a son and a 
desire for life re-awoke in her. She determined to 
live for her child, who had a right to the happiness 
which she had missed, but she did not wish that he 
should live upon annexed land which was no longer 
a country, that he should be, like her, in servitude, or 
that, like his father, he should beg of the conqueror 
his property and title ; she wished her son to be a 
free man and a Pole, and to attain that end it was 
necessary that his country should rise and free her- 
self. 

Napoleon had already vanquished Austria, meas- 
ured his strength against Eussia at Austerlitz, and 
was about to strike at Prussia and her allies ; he 
was a providential adversary of her country's ene- 
mies and seemed destined to save Poland. 

When the campaign of 1806 opened and Napo- 
leon's forces marched with incredible rapidity across 
France and Germany to Berlin, the Prussians melt- 
ing like phantoms before them, Mme. Walewska 
reached such a state of feverish enthusiasm that she 
could no longer remain at Walewice, to which re- 



NAPOLEON, LOVBE AND HUSBAND. 197 

mote spot news penetrated but slowly, and her hus- 
band being as great a patriot as herself, they went 
to Warsaw, where they established themselves as 
became their rank. 

Mme.Walewska, conscious of her lack of education 
and worldly knowledge, fearing to blunder when 
she spoke French, unsupported by family or friends, 
dreaded to go into society, and above all to appear 
at LaBlacha, the palace of Prince Joseph Poniatow- 
ski, and the rallying-place of Warsaw's best society, 
and though in obedience to her husband's command, 
she made a few formal and obligatory visits, she 
held aloof from the gaieties of the capital, thus re- 
maining, despite her loveliness, almost unknown. 

The whole city was in a tumult of excitement 
over the approaching arrival of the Emperor, all 
being desirous that his reception at Warsaw should 
outdo the welcome given him at Posen ; the city was 
turned topsy-turvy by the citizens in their deter- 
mination to give Napoleon a royal welcome, for 
they felt that the fate of Poland lay in his hands. 
Mme. Walewska longed to be the first to greet him, 
and, without weighing the importance of the step 
she was taking, persuaded one of her cousins to 
accompany her and rushed to Bronie. 

After the meeting which we described in the 



198 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

beginning of the chapter she stood gazing after the 
imperial carriage until it was lost to view ; then, 
carefully enveloping the bouquet which the Emperor 
had given her, she stepped into her carriage and 
returned to Warsaw. 

Her intention was to keep her journey a secret, 
to shun all the f§tes and thus avoid a presentation 
to Napoleon ; but her companion, though sworn to 
secrecy, was far too elated over the adventure to 
keep the story to herself, and one morning Prince 
Joseph Poniatowski sent to inquire at what hour 
Mme. Walewska could receive him, and, calling in 
the afternoon, invited her to a ball he was about to 
give in honor of the Emperor, saying that Napoleon 
wished particularly to meet her a second time. As 
she blushingly refused to understand his reference 
to her first meeting with His Majesty, the prince, 
laughing heartily over the matter, explained his 
knowledge of the affair. It appeared that at one 
of the dinners given in the Emperor's honor, he had 
been observed to look attentively at the Princess 
Lubomirska, and she was immediately presented, 
but after meeting her. Napoleon paid but scant 
attention to the lady ; this indifference surprised 
Prince Joseph, but was explained by Duroc, who re- 
lated the episode of Bronie, and explained that his 
royal master had fancied that in the princess he 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE ANP HUSBAND. 199 

had discovered the charming unknown. Duroc gave 
all the details of the meeting at Bronie, describing 
minutely the face, figure and toilet of the mysteri- 
ous lady, but Poniatowski was unable to divine 
who it could have been, and was about to give up 
his search in despair, when the indiscreet chatter of 
Mme. Walewska's companion enlightened him, and, 
knowing the Emperor's desire to cultivate the 
acquaintance, he determined that she should come 
to the ball. 

Mme. Walewska refused absolutely to go, and 
remained unmoved even by his argument that under 
Heaven she might perhaps be an instrument towards 
the rehabilitation of her country. Hardly had the 
prince departed when the principal representatives 
of Poland were announced ; they were statesmen, 
whose authority was based upon public esteem and 
consideration and the deference due to their irre- 
proachable conduct and wisdom ; all of these men 
foresaw what benefit might accrue to Poland from 
Napoleon's admiration for one of its daughters and 
they joined in urging her acceptance of the prince's 
invitation ; their arguments, however, failed to 
move her and she was still firm in her determination 
to remain at home, when her husband arrived and 
came to their rescue. M. Walewska was igno- 
rant of the adventure at Bronie, and saw in the in- 



200 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

sistence of these gentlemen nothing save the con- 
sideration due his rank and the services he had 
rendered his country, and promptly accepted for his 
wife. Marie pleaded, almost with tears, to remain at 
home, but her husband insisted, ridiculed her fears, 
and finally commanded that she should go. She 
made one condition, however, which was, that, as al- 
most all the other ladies had already been presented, 
care should be taken that her presentation should 
not be conspicuous. 

The great day came, and her husband hurried 
her toilet, fearing that they would be late and 
reach the ball-room after the Emperor had departed. 
M. Walewski would have liked to see his wife 
magnificently apparelled, and he found great fault 
with the severely simple dress of white satin which 
she had selected to wear and with the garland of 
leaves which was her only ornament ; others, how- 
ever, were not of his opinion, for a murmur of 
admiration greeted her entrance into the ball-room. 
She was installed between two ladies, with whom 
she was, unacquainted and was feeling strange and 
uncomfortable, when Prince Poniatowski stationed 
himself behind her. '' Your arrival has been im- 
patiently awaited, madame," he murmured, "and 
your entrance to the ball-room greeted with pleasure ; 
your name has been repeated until it must be known 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 201 

by heart, and after scrutinizing your husband some- 
one said, shrugging his shoulders : ' Poor Httle 
victim ; ' and I am commanded to invite you to 
dance." 

"I do not dance," she answered, "and have no 
incHnation towards that form of amusement." 

The prince explained that his invitation, being at 
the instigation of the Emperor, was paramount to 
an order, that His Majesty was watching them and 
that if she refused he should be considered at fault, 
and also that the success of the ball largely depended 
upon her ; but persuasion and explanation were 
alike wasted. Mme. Walewska positively refused 
to dance, and the prince had but one resource : to 
find Duroc, who received his confidences and repeated 
them to Napoleon. 

Mme. Walewska was soon the centre of a bril- 
liant circle of staff-officers who were charmed by her 
beauty and unaffected manners, for her presence, 
which was an open secret to the Poles, was not un- 
derstood by the French. Napoleon, however, was 
not long in effecting the removal of his unconscious 
rivals ; Louis de Perigord seemed the most devoted 
of her admirers, so the Emperor made a sign to 
Berthier and ordered him to send the aide-de-camp 
at once to the sixth corps on the Passarge, and the 
next in order was Bertrand, who, on a second sign. 



202 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

was ordered to report to Prince Jerome before 
Breslau. 

The Emperor wandered about the ball-room with 
the intention of making himself generally agreeable, 
but his preoccupation led him to make singularly 
mal a propos speeches ; he asked a young girl how 
many children she had, a homely old maid, if her 
husband was jealous of her beauty, and inquired of 
a lady who was enormously stout if she was very fond 
of dancing. When he arrived before Mme. Walewska 
her neighbors nudged her as a sign that she should 
rise, and standing, her eyes fixed on the ground, 
strangely pale, she awaited the Emperor's pleasure. 
"White upon white is not becoming, madame," he 
said aloud, then added in a low tone, ' ' This is scarcely 

the reception I expected " He paused and looked 

at her attentively, but as she made no response he 
passed on, and a few moments afterwards left the 
ball-room. 

His departure was the signal for greater liberty 
of action, each recounting to her neighbor what the 
Emperor had said to her, and all anxious to learn 
what he said to Mme. Walewska, and to what he re- 
ferred when saying that he had expected a different 
greeting, for those nearest had caught his remarks, 
and the wildest curiosity prevailed regarding it, 
some daring spirits even going so far as to question 



n 



K^APOLEOJS, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 203 

Marie herself. As soon as possible she made her 
escape, but on the way home her husband also 
catechised her, and, receiving unsatisfactory replies, 
announced that he had accepted an invitation for 
a dinner at which the Emperor was to be present, 
and requested her to order a more elegant costume 
for that occasion. Marie was on the point of telling 
him of her imprudent trip to Bronie, of its conse- 
quences up to date and her disquietude ; but he left 
her brusquely at the door of her room, which she 
had hardly entered, before her maid handed her a 
note which she had some difficulty in deciphering : 

"I HAVE SEEN, ADMIRED AND DESIRED BUT YOU 
THIS EVENING. A KIND AND PROMPT ANSWER ALONE 
CAN CALM THE IMPATIENT ARDOR OF 

" N." 

Mme. Walewska crushed the note in her hand, 
disgusted and revolted by its language. "There 
is no answer ? " she said to her maid, who departed 
to convey her mistress's reply to the bearer of the 
note ; but the messenger who waited in the street 
was no other than Prince Poniatowski, who did not 
propose to be so easily beaten, and, despite the 
servant's remonstrances, entered the house and fol- 
lowed her to her mistress's room with such prompti- 
tude, that Mme. Walewska had barely time to lock 



204 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

the door. From behind the closed door she informed 
the prince that her decision was immutable ; and at 
the risk of a scandal the prince alternately implored 
and menaced, but was at last obliged to depart, dis- 
comfited and angry. She was scarcely awake on 
the following morning, when her maid handed 
her a second note, which she did not open, but sealing 
it up in an envelope with the first ordered that both 
should be handed to the messenger. 

Before noon her drawing-room was crowded, all 
the personages of the nation, influential members 
of the government, Prince Joseph and Grand Mar- 
shal Duroc, being assembled there, but Marie, pre- 
texting a sick headache, remained in her own room 
stretched out upon a lounge. Her husband was 
furious, and to prove that he was not jealous, as 
was artfully insinuated, he conducted the prince 
and his countrymen into his wife's apartment, and 
in their presence insisted that she should allow her- 
self to be presented and should attend the dinner, 
to which she was bidden. To this the Poles agreed 
in chorus, and one of their number, an old man, 
who was highly respected, and whose advice was 
deferentially listened to by the chiefs of the govern- 
ment, fixed his eyes sharply upon her, and said in an 
impressive manner : "I hope that between this and 
the date set for the dinner your indisposition will 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 205 

have disappeared, for you cannot refuse the invita- 
tion without laying yourself open to the accusation 
of lack of love for your country," 

How could this inexperienced girl of eighteen, 
alone, without a friend to counsel her, defend her- 
self against so many ? — she did her best, but the 
pressure was too great. She was obliged to rise, and, 
obeying her husband's mandate, called upon Mme. 
de Vauban, who was Prince Joseph's mistress, 
solicited her advice as to the toilet she should wear, 
and asked her to be initiated into the mysteries of 
court etiquette ; thus she was delivered into the 
hands of the enemy, for Mme. Vauban was deep in 
the intrigue. 

iVee Pugot-Barbentane, Mme. de Vauban had lived 
at Versailles and was familiar with the life of the 
old court ; at the outbreak of the revolution she fled 
to Warsaw, and there lived publicly with the prince, 
who had previously been her lover. She thought 
that to give a mistress to a sovereign, whether 
he be Louis XV. or Napoleon, was the most im- 
portant mission which a courtesan could fill, and 
as for scruples, purity, duty, or conjugal fidelity — 
it never occurred to her that a woman of the world 
would balance such virtues against certain advan- 
tages. Mme. de Vauban was clever enough to per- 
ceive that the woman with whom she had now to 



206 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

deal could not be tempted by worldly considera- 
tions, that she must manoeuvre skilfully and make 
VLBB of weapons with which she was not familiar, 
before she could overcome Mme. Walewska's 
Bcruples, and, feeling unequal to the task, she con- 
tented herself with paying her visitor numerous 
compliments, advising as to her dress and conduct, 
and protesting friendship ; then she turned Marie 
over to a young woman who lived with her some- 
what as a companion. This lady, Mme. Abramo- 
wicz, was a divorcee without fortune, young, gay, 
and clever, and, being nearer Mme. Walewska's age, 
possessed every requisite to attract her confidence, 
even the most exalted sentiments of patriotism — 
real or feigned. She insinuated herself into Mme. 
Walewska's confidence and won the affections of the 
lonely girl, who had never had an intimate friend, 
and whose heart longed for a confidante. Mme. 
Abramowicz ingratiated herself with the husband, 
and was inseparable from the wife, and when she 
thought that the time was ripe, she read to Mme. 
Walewska a letter, signed by the most prominent 
men of the nation, and members of the provisional 
government : 

" Madame : 
" Slight causes sometimes produce great results, 



NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 207 

and women from time immemorial have exercised 
great influence over the world's politics ; ancient 
history, as well as modern, bears testimony to this 
fact, and so long as men are dominated by passion 
women can sway them. 

"Had you been a man, you would gladly have 
given your life to your country ; as a woman you 
cannot serve as her defender, but there are other 
sacrifices which you can make for Poland, and 
which you should gladly impose upon yourself, 
however painful they may be. 

' ' Do you imagine that it was for love that Esther 
gave herself to Ahasverus ? Does not the fact that he 
inspired her with such fear, that she swooned when 
he looked upon her, prove that affection had no 
part in that union ? She sacrificed herself for her 
country, and, to her everlasting honor, she saved it. 
May history record as much for your glory and our 
happiness ! 

"Are you not daughter, sister, wife and mother 
to zealous Poles who, with us, form the national 
sheaf, the strength of which can be augmented only 
by the number and union of those who compose it. 
Eemember, madame, the words of a celebrated man, 
a saint and pious ecclesiastic, Fenelon, who wrote : 
^Men, in whom all public authority is vested, can 
achieve no effective result from their deliberations, 



208 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

if women do not aid in the execution of their de- 
signs.' Heed his voice, which unites with ours, that 
you may promote the happiness of your country- 
men, of twenty million souls." 

Thus every spring was brought into play to pre- 
cipitate the downfall of this young woman, who, in- 
experienced and guileless, had neither a husband in 
whom she could confide, nor parents to defend her, 
nor friends anxious to save her ; the family, country 
and religion were invoked to force her compliance, 
all conspired against her, and to complete the work, 
she was made to read the note from Napoleon, which 
she had once refused to open. 

''I fear, madame," he wrote, "that I have dis- 
pleased you ; yet I had a right to hope the contrary 
— was I so mistaken ? Your enthusiasm has waned 
while mine has augmented. You have banished 
sleep from my pillow ! Ah, deign to give a little 
joy to a poor heart which is ready to adore you. Do 
you then find it so difficult to write to me ? You 
owe me two letters. 

Her husband, proud of the success of his wife, for 
which he took all the credit, without understanding 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 209 

the situation nor having the slightest suspicion of 
what was expected of her — for he was an honest 
gentleman — insisted upon her going to the much 
discussed dinner. The poor girl herself understood 
that the step was a decisive one and committed her ; 
but all the world wished it, and she yielded. Her 
drawing-room was constantly filled with visitors, 
who mutely felicitated her, and in order that she 
should not change her mind during the time pre- 
ceding the dinner, Mme. Abramowicz kept her 
company. 

On her way to the dinner, Mme. Walewska com- 
forted herself with the idea that as she did not love 
Napoleon, she had nothing to fear, and on her arrival 
the marked attentions of some of the guests, who 
already had in view the solicitation of her protection, 
completely disgusted her with her supposed conquest 
and she was firmly resolved to remain unapproach- 
able when the Emperor appeared. Napoleon was 
more self-possessed that evening than at the ball, 
and better prepared to be generally courteous ; when 
Marie was presented he said simply: "I thought 
madame was indisposed, has she quite recovered ? " 
and this purposely simple speech overthrew her 
suspicions and even struck her as being extremely 
delicate. 

At table she was placed next the grand marshal 
14 



210 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

and almost opposite the Emperor, who, when all 
were seated, began in his curt fashion to question 
his neighbors upon the history of Poland ; he ap- 
peared to listen attentively and to take a deep in- 
terest in the subject, but whether speaking or listen- 
ing his eyes never left Mme. Walewska save to ex- 
change a glance with Duroc, with whom he seemed 
to have established a sort of optical telegraph. It 
seemed as though the remarks which Duroc ad- 
dressed to his neighbor were dictated by a glance or 
gesture of the Emperor, who kept up all the time a 
grave discussion upon European politics ; once he 
lifted his hand to the left side of his coat, Duroc 
hesitated for a moment, looked attentively at his 
master, and at last, divining what was required of 
him, heaved an " Ah ! " of satisfaction. It was the 
bouquet of Bronie which was in question and Duroc 
hastened to ask Mme. Walewska what had become 
of it. 

Marie responded that she religiously preserved the 
flowers which the Emperor had given her for her 
BOB.. ''Ah! madame," said the grand marshal, 
"you must permit us to offer you something more 
worthy of you." Imagining that his speech had a 
double meaning she retorted loudly, flushed with 
anger.- "I care only for flowers!" Duroc was 
dumfounded, but after a moment recovered his 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 211 

presence of mind sufficiently to say: "Very well, 
madame, we will pluck laurels from your native soil 
for you ; " and observing that that touched her, 
knew that his second speech had been a lucky one. 

When the company rose from the table and re- 
turned to the drawing-room, the Emperor took ad- 
vantage of the confusion to approach her and fixing 
upon her his strangely piercing eyes, the power of 
which no human being had ever resisted, he took her 
hand and pressing it, said in a low tone : '' With 
eyes so sweet and tender, with such an expression of 
goodness, it cannot possibly be a pleasure to torture 
a man, or else appearances are deceitful and you are 
the most coquettish of women, the most cruel of 
your sex." 

On the Emperor's departure the party broke up 
and Mme. Walewska was persuaded to go to Mme. de 
Vauban's where a number of the dinner guests and 
those who were initiated into the intrigue, awaited 
her coming ; upon entering the room she was im- 
mediately surrounded by those who flattered her and 
assured her that the Emperor had had eyes only for 
ner, that she alone could plead the nation's cause, 
touch his heart and determine him to rehabilitate 
Poland. Little by little, as if in obedience to some 
secret understanding, the guests departed, leaving 
Marie and Mme. Abramowicz alone ; almost im- 



212 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

mediately Duroc was announced and when the doors 
were closed, he seated himself at Mme, Walewska's 
side and laid a letter on her knee, then taking her 
hand, said in the gentlest possible manner : ''Can 
you refuse the request of one who has never brooked 
refusal ? His position, though glorious, is lonely and 
sad, and it lies in your power to give him some hours, 
at least, of happiness. " Duroc spoke at great length 
but she made no answer and hiding her face in her 
hands wept and sobbed like a child ; the other 
woman, however, answered for her and guaranteed 
that she would go to the rendezvous. When Marie 
indignantly remonstrated, she shamed her with her 
lack of patriotism, telling her, that she was a rene- 
gade daughter of Poland, that they should all will- 
ingly sacrifice anything for him who would be their 
country's deliverer, and finally bowed the grand 
marshal out, assuring him that Mme. Walewska 
would finally comply with his master's wishes ; then 
opening the note which he had brought, Mme. 
Abramowicz read it aloud : 

'" There are moments when the weight of my rank 
seems more than I can bear, and I am now living 
through such a period. How can I satisfy the de- 
sires and needs of a hungry heart which longs to 
throw itself at your feet and is arrested only by 
weighty considerations which paralyze its most 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 213 

ardent desires and deprive me of freedom of action ? 
Oh, if you would but come to me ! You alone can 
surmount the obstacles which separate us ; my friend 
Doroc will arrange everything. 

' ' Come to me, and all your desires shall be fulfilled, 
and your country will be dearer to me when you 
have taught me to love it. 

Thus the fate of Poland lay in her little hands ; it 
was not her countrymen alone who said so, but the 
great conqueror himself, who affirmed it ; it de- 
pended upon her, that her country should be reborn, 
the shameful divisions abolished, the torn parts re- 
united, and the White Eagle fly proudly over all. 
It was no wonder that such a glorious dream almost 
intoxicated her ; yet she still struggled, claiming 
that she was not equal to playing such a role, to 
which they answered, that she should not lack for 
advisers, and had only to follow their counsel. Her 
modesty revolting, she was told that the sentiments 
she entertained were provincial, ridiculous and out 
of date, that many another woman, quite as virtuous 
as she, would willingly exchange places with her 
and lend Poland the aid of their beauty were the 
chance given them, — why, they asked, should she 
doubt her ability to do good ? Though an Emperor, 



214 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

Napoleon was but a man — and a man in love ; she 
would be able to wind him around her finger and 
achieve the realization of the patriot's brightest 
dreams. Thus at last they wrung from her a reluc- 
tant consent. She refused, however, to answer 
Napoleon's letter, feeling physically incapable of 
writing, and they left her alone to advise together, 
taking the precaution, however, to lock her in, lest 
she might change her mind and run away ; but she 
was not thinking of such a thing, she reflected, or 
rather, exhausted by the prolonged struggle, she 
dreamed. 

She wondered if she could not without losing her 
self-esteem have an interview with Napoleon, inspire 
him with friendship and respect and persuade him 
to listen to the prayer of her people ; surely he would 
not force his caresses upon her, knowing that she 
had no love to give him, for she would tell him that 
he inspired her only with sentiments of enthusiasm, 
admiration and gratitude. There was nothing de- 
praved in the imagination of this girl of eighteen, 
whose only knowledge of love was derived from the 
almost platonic affection of her septuagenarian hus- 
band, and drifting into the world of dreams, where 
the virtue of woman has nothing to fear from the 
passions of man, where the senses are abolished and 
souls speak and understand each other, she dreamed 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 215 

of an ideal friendship, which should both comfort 
Napoleon in his loneliness and benefit Poland. 

The conspirators, having settled everything, re- 
turned and Mme.Walewska agreed to comply with all 
their wishes, only stipulating that she should remain 
where she was until those who were to conduct her 
to Napoleon, should call ; she remained all the next 
day, which dragged by slowly, alternately watching 
the hands of the clock and the closed door by which 
her executioner must enter. 

At half-past ten in the evening some one knocked, 
and Mme. Abramowicz, hastily arraying Marie in a 
hat with a thick veil and a long cloak, which com- 
pletely disguised her figure, led her like one in a 
dream to a carriage which waited at the street 
corner, and assisted her to enter it ; a man with a 
long coat and a slouched hat, who had held the door 
open, drew up the step and took a seat beside her. 
Not a word was exchanged on the way, and when 
the carriage drew up before a private entrance to 
the grand palace, her silent companion assisted her 
to leave the carriage and almost carried her to a 
door which was opened impatiently from within, 
and, quietly departing, left her alone with Napo- 
leon. 

Blinded by tears Mme. Walewska could not dis- 
cern the features of the Emperor who knelt by her 



216 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

side, took her hand, and began speaking to her in a 
caressing manner ; nor was she clearly conscious of 
what he said until the words : '' Your old husband " 
escaped him, when the full realization of the ignominy 
burst upon her and with a cry of horror she sprang 
to her feet and looked about for means to escape. 

Napoleon was momentarily paralyzed with sur- 
prise, not knowing what to make of this woman, 
who after so many entreaties had yielded to his solic- 
itations and granted him a nocturnal rendezvous, 
yet who now manifested such unmistakable and un- 
affected horror at her situation. Not holding the key 
to her presence there, he questioned an instant if 
she was not acting a part with the intent to increase 
his desire, but her grief and dismay were too genuine, 
and determined to solve the riddle of her conduct, he 
drew her gently away from the door against which 
she was leaning, seated her in an arm-chair and began 
to question her kindly regarding her history ; re- 
solved not to alarm her, he sought to put his ques- 
tions in a manner which would least wound and 
shock her sensibilities, but in spite of his kind inten- 
tions, his habitual masterfulness pierced the veil of 
gentleness and he could only obtain brief and frag- 
mentary answers from the trembling woman, but 
even those he turned to weapons against herself. 
"Had she voluntarily given herself to the man 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 217 

whose name she bore, was it for rank and wealth 
that she had sacrificed her youth ? No ; — then who 
forced her to unite her young life with an old and 
decrepid man ? Her mother ; — then why had she 
any remorse, since the marriage was not of her 
chosing ? " Marie stammered between her sobs that 
it was her duty to be faithful, that that which God 
had joined together, man should not seek to sunder. 
Napoleon could not control his mirth, and at the 
sound of his laughter Mme. Walewska's tears fell all ' 
the faster. 

More and more mystified and correspondingly in- 
terested by this woman, the like of whom he had 
never before encountered, he was the more deter- 
mined to discover the solution to her presence in his 
apartments. Here was a woman who wished to be a 
faithful wife, to hold fast to the principles of her 
religion, a woman who was unquestionably pure and 
virtuous, and yet, she was there in his apartments 
at the dead of night, in compliance with his wishes. 
Never had his curiosity been so aroused, and he 
pressed his questions, asking about the education 
she had received, the life she had led in the country 
and the society she frequented, of her mother and 
family, — he wished to know everything, even to the 
name she had received at baptism : the sweet nam,e 
of Marie, by which he ever afterwards called her. 



218 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 

At two in the morning some one rapped at the 
door. " What ! " exclaimed Napoleon, '' so soon ? 
Well, my gentle dove, dry your tears and go home 
to rest ; you need never again fear the Eagle, for 
he will exert no other influence over you than that 
of passionate love. You will end by loving him, for 
he will be everything to you — everything." He 
assisted her to fasten her mantle, put on her veil, 
and conducted her to the door, but before he let her 
out he exacted a promise that she would return the 
following night. She was reconducted to her home 
and retired almost reassured, it seemed as if her 
dream might be realized, for as Napoleon had been 
kind and tender and spared her that time, she 
fancied it would be the same in the future. 

At nine o'clock the following morning the confi- 
dential friend was at her bedside, holding in her 
hands a large package, which, after prudently lock- 
ing the door, she carefully unwrapped, and drew 
forth several jewel-cases in red morocco, a quantity 
of hothouse flowers intermingled with branches of 
laurel and a sealed letter ; but scarcely had she ex- 
posed to view a magnificent brooch and spray of 
diamonds than Mme. Walewska snatched them from 
her hands and flung them to the end of the room, 
furious that they should have been sent her. She 
ordered that they should be immediately returned ; 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 219 

sfie wished the Emperor to comprehend that she was 
not for sale, and that if she gave herself to him it 
would not be from a desire for jewels ; then, unseal- 
ing the letter, she read : 

" Marie, my sweet Mane, my first thought is for 
you, my greatest desire to see you again ; you will 
keep your promise and return, will you not ? Other- 
wise the Eagle will fly to you ! Our friend tells me 
we shall meet at dinner, deign, therefore, to accept 
this bouquet which shall establish between us a bond 
by which we may communicate in the midst of the 
crowd which will surround us, and even under the 
gaze of others. When I lay my hand over my heart 
you will know that it is filled with thoughts of you 
and you can respond by touching your bouquet. 
Love me, my precious Marie, and never take your 
hand off your flowers. 

The letter was all very fine, but it could not make 
her accept his diamonds, nor even the flowers and 
laurels. She had an excuse ready : One did not 
wear flowers on one's dress save at balls, and it was 
to a dinner she was going. She vainly essayed to 
excuse herself from this dinner, but she was forced 
to fulfill her engagement by those whose ambitions 



220 NAPOLEON", LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

were roused and who firmly believed that, through 
her, they would see their dearest wish fulfilled. 
Her husband remained perfectly blind, he never sus- 
pected for a moment the intrigue which was being 
carried on about him, and urgently desired her to 
accept all invitations. 

On her arrival at the house where the dinner was 
given, she was immediately surrounded by her ac- 
quaintances and by those who were anxious to be 
presented, and it seemed to the poor woman as if all 
these strangers were cognizant of her adventure 
of the night previous. The Emperor had already 
arrived and appeared dissatisfied, he frowned and 
regarded her with an angry expression, his eyes 
seeming to read her very soul ; as he advanced 
towards her she trembled, fearing that he was go- 
ing to make a public scene, when suddenly recalling 
the words of his letter, she laid her hand on the 
place where his flowers should have been, and had 
the satisfaction of seeing his contracted features re- 
lax into a smile and his hand respond by a similar 
sign. Before going to table he called Duroc aside 
and spoke with him for an instant ; she had barely 
taken her place at the table, where, as at the pre- 
ceding dinner, she was seated next the grand mar- 
shal, when he attacked her about the bouquet ; she 
responded haughtily that she was insulted by the 



I 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 221 

diamonds^ and wished it distinctly understood that 
she would accept no presents of that kind, that the 
only thing which could repay her devotion was hope 
for the future of her country. "Has the Emperor 
not already given you the right to hope ? " retorted 
Duroc ; then he recalled to her a number of acts 
which proved his master's good faith, and through- 
out the dinner he continued to talk of the Emperor's 
affection for her, the loneliness of his high state, and 
the need he had of a heart which would love and 
understand him, and of the glory of the mission 
which was hers, reminding her, too, of her promise 
to return to the palace that night. 

She was conducted to the palace with the same 
precautions as on the previous evening, and found 
Napoleon gloomy and thoughtful. ' ' You have come 
at last," he said, " I had abandoned all hope of see- 
ing you ! " He assisted her to lay aside her cloak 
and hat, and when she was seated, stationed him- 
self before her, and commanded her to explain her 
conduct. Why did she go to Bronie ? Why had she 
sought to inspire him with a sentiment which she 
did not share ? Why had she refused his flowers 
and even the laurels ? Why had she ever made a ren- 
dezvous with him ? What were her intentions when 
she came to the palace ? As she did not answer he 
gave way to a paroxysm of anger and exclaimed : 



222 KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

" You led me to hope for everything and you give 
nothing ; you are a true Pole, and your actions con- 
firm the opinion I have always held of your nation." 

Moved and troubled by her reception, and anxious 
to know what he thought of her people, she said : 
'' Ah, Sire, forgive me, and tell me what you think 
of us Poles." 

He informed her that he considered the Polish 
race passionate and unstable, emotional and lacking 
in system ; that their enthusiasm was impetuous and 
genuine, but short-lived, and that this portrait of 
her race was her likeness. Had she not flown, like 
one crazed with enthusiasm, to gain a glimpse of 
him ? Had she not led him to believe by- her earnest 
and passionate expressions of esteem that she was 
most kindly disposed towards him ? He had allowed 
himself to be duped, but she must know that, when 
anything was withheld from him, it became the 
object he most coveted, and that nothing could daunt 
him in the pursuit of it. Whether real or feigned, 
the violence of his excitement grew apace and Mme. 
Walewska shrank before him. ^' I want you to 
understand," he thundered, " that I will force you 
to love me ! I have already lifted the name of your 
country from the dust, thanks to me that it has 
not been wiped from the face of the earth ! I will do 
more — but, remember, that even as I crush this 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 223 

watch in my hand, so shall your country and all 
your hopes be crushed if you push me to extremes, 
repulse my love and refuse me yours." 

Overcome by this violence, Mme. Walewska 
fainted — when she recovered consciousness she no 
longer belonged to herself. 

Henceforth it was a liaison, if one can so desig- 
nate the habit she acquired of going nightly to the 
palace and passively submitting to caresses which 
she hoped would some day bring her a great reward. 
Napoleon established a provisional government, the 
embryo of an army and several companies of light 
cavalry were attached to his guard ; but it was not 
for so little that Mme. Walewska had sacrificed her 
virtue, the only thing which could content her and 
condone her conduct in her own eyes, was the re- 
establishment of Poland as a nation and a state. 
Incapable of feigning a sentiment which she did not 
entertain, or a passion which she did not feel, she 
had none of the requisites for the domination of a 
lover, and was not even cunning enough to conceal 
the motive which actuated her. Nightly she referred 
to the one topic which interested her and was consoled 
by promises and buoyed by hopes ; but the promises 
were always for the future, in the present there was 
only misery which seemed interminable. 

She met with no censure in her own country j 



224 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

aside from her husband, whoni she had been obliged 
to leave, all hastened to do her honor, not as a 
favorite but as a victim, for none were in ignorance 
of her sacrifice, and by all she was esteemed, re- 
spected and pitied. Her husband's own sisters. 
Princess Jablonowska and Countess Birginska, 
constituted themselves her chaperones ; had she so 
desired, she could have taken the first place in War- 
saw's society and maintained almost regal state ; 
but Mme. Walewska shunned society, lived unpre- 
tentiously, and gave no cause for enmity ; there- 
fore, though less flattered, she received greater sym- 
pathy. 

To a society which concealed oriental habits under 
a veneer of French elegance and customs, which 
still retained the moral code of Catherine the Great, 
there was nothing shocking in Mme. Walewska's 
position. There was no fine Polish gentleman of 
the time who had not an authenticated mistress, of 
whose existence his wife was well aware and to whom 
she exhibited no animosity ; scarcely a noble did not 
support, at some one of his country seats, one or 
more Georgian favorites ; consequently, as he did 
not travel with a harem in his train. Napoleon 
appeared to the Poles as a singularly chaste sover- 
eign ; when he established himself in Warsaw they 
felt that he should have a female companion to 



NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 225 

divert him, and but natural and right to secure for 
him the society of the only woman in whom he 
manifested the least interest. 

Fortuitously, the Emperor admired a woman of 
exceptional character and one who could be made 
politically useful ; virtuous, unaffected, disinterested, 
animated solely by love of country, incarnating in 
her person the best traits of her nation, Marie 
Walewska was capable of inspiring in the heart of 
her royal lover a deep and lasting affection, and the 
Poles reasoned that she would become like a second 
wife to Napoleon, that, without sharing his imperial 
state and splendor, she would fill a special place in 
his life and be an ever-present ambassadress for 
Poland. 

Napoleon was alive to the fact that Mme. Walew- 
ska did not love him for himself, that her country 
held the first place in her heart, indeed, she never 
essayed to make him think otherwise, but frankly 
avowed that she had become his mistress in the 
hope of softening his heart and awakening his sym- 
pathies towards her unhappy land, and he, who 
usually mistrusted any one whom he suspected of a 
desire to make use of him, placed implicit confi- 
dence in this simple, sincere and earnest girl ; he 
knew her to be so far above the ordinary ambitions 

of women that he longed to content her, and keenly 
1 



226 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

regretted his inability to bestow the one boon she 
coveted. 

" Eest assured," he frequently said to her, '* that 
my promises to you shall be fulfilled. I have already 
forced Kussia to relinquish what she had usurped ; 
time will do the rest, but you must be patient ; 
politics is a cord which snaps if subjected to too 
great a strain, and the time is not yet ripe for the 
realization of your hopes. In the meanwhile, your 
politicians must work, the country must be organ- 
ized ; you are rich in patriots and can command 
plenty of brave arms — honor and courage start 
from every pore of you Poles — but that will not 
suffice, there must be great unanimity." 

It was strange how this man, who never discussed 
politics with a woman, continually recurred to the 
subject of Poland's future, and discussed with her 
the best means for the amelioration of her country- 
men, how to benefit all classes and insure a united 
movement even if at the expense of the aristocracy. 

"You well know," he said, ''that I love your 
nation, that my wishes and my political views lead 
me to desire its entire rehabilitation ; I am most 
willing to second its efforts and uphold its rights, 
and all that I can do without endangering the in- 
terests of France, I will do ; but remember that the 
distance that separates us is tremendous, that what 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 227 

I establish here to-day may be annihilated to-mor- 
row. My first duty is to France, I cannot shed 
French blood for a cause which is not theirs, nor 
arm my people and rush to your succor each time 
that it may be necessary." 

From these grave matters he would turn to social 
gossip, current anecdotes and the tittle-tattle of the 
drawing-room with a rapidity which amazed his 
listener. He wanted her to inform him regarding 
the private life of every personage whom he en- 
countered, his curiosity was insatiable and went 
into the minutest details ; it was his way of form- 
ing an opinion upon the leading class wherever he 
found himself, and here, where such great interests 
were at stake, he made use of every means to in- 
form himself. From the accumulated tales, which 
engraved themselves upon his memory, bits of in- 
formation regarding this one and that one, he drew 
astute conclusions which astonished the woman 
who listened and showed her that she had furnished 
him with arms against herself ; she would protest 
indignantly against the deductions he drew and 
the judgments he pronounced ; the quarrel usually 
ending with his giving her a slight tap on the 
cheek and exclaiming : " Good little Marie, you are 
worthy to be a Spartan and to have a country ! " 

Napoleon would not have loved Mme. Walewska 



228 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

as he did, had he not taken an interest in her toile|;, 
in which matter he considered himself an excellent 
judge, having once written to Savary : ''You know 
that I am an authority upon woman's dress. " From 
the time of the Consulate he had selected the pres- 
ents sent to any queen, and the dress of the court 
ladies did not escape his criticism ; even Josephine, 
whose taste in dress was exquisite, was not exempt. 
Above all he disliked sombre costumes, and Mme. 
Walewska insisted upon dressing in the most simple 
fashion and always in black, white or gray, which 
displeased him extremely, and regarding which he 
remonstrated with her, and she retorted, that '^a 
Polish woman should wear mourning for her coun- 
try ; when you resuscitate it I will wear nothing 
but rose-color." 

Thus in every way she brought him back to th^ 
same subject, but without annoying him, so great 
was his love for her. It did not suffice him to see 
his mistress by appointment, he desired that she. 
should attend all the dinners and fetes at which he 
was obliged to be present, and as he wished to be 
constantly in communication with her he initiated 
her into the mysterious system by which he com- 
municated with Duroc, and she became more expert 
at it than the grand marshal himself, and at the 
very instant when Napoleon seemed engrossed in 



i 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 229 

some serious subject he would tell her in his sign 
language that his heart was filled with thoughts of 
her. When she expressed her astonishment that so 
great a general, so shrewd a politician, should con- 
descend to such boyish means of communication, he 
said : "Eeflect that I am obliged to fill with dignity 
the post assigned to me, I have the honor to com- 
mand nations. I was an acorn, I have become an 
oak and I am watched on every side ; this situation 
obliges me to play a role which is not always easy, 
but which I am obliged to keep up in order to pre- 
serve the character with which I am invested, and 
while I must play the monarch for all the world, I 
love to be your subject, and how can I manage to 
tell you that I love you at a state dinner (which I 
want to do every time I look at you), unless I employ 
the sign language ? " 

When he removed his headquarters to Fincken- 
stein Marie was obliged to follow him, and the 
melancholy existence she led there resembled closely 
that which she had once led at Walewice with her 
old husband. The long, quiet days were broken only 
by the meals which she ate tete-a-tete with the Em- 
peror, and which were served by a single valet, the 
rest of the time was spent in reading and embroid- 
ering, and her only distraction was watching the 
parade from behind closed blinds. It was the life 



230 KAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 

of a recluse subject to the will of a master, without 
society, pleasure or distraction, and yet it satisfied 
her better than the brilliant society which she had 
left at Warsaw. Thus Mme. Walewska realized 
the type of woman which he had hoped to find in 
Josephine : sweet, complaisant, timid, attentive, 
unambitious and seemingly without will, who lived 
only for him and who, though she asked a favor of 
him, asked so colossal a one that it became imper- 
sonal and impossible of conception save by a soul 
singularly pure and disinterested, and to hope to 
receive it from the hands of a mortal, was to think 
of him almost as a god ; all this appealed strongly 
to Napoleon and augmented his Polish love's hold 
on him. 

When the Emperor was about to leave Poland, 
without having realized the dream for whose sake 
Mme. Walewska had given herself to him when, 
despairing and disillusioned, Marie refused to follow 
him to Paris and announced her intention to retire 
into the heart of the country, there to await in sad- 
ness and solitude the fulfilment of his vows, it 
became his turn to supplicate : " I know," he said, 
" that you can live without me, that your heart is 
not mine ; but you are good, kind and generous, can 
you find it in your heart to deprive me of my only 
happiness — of the few moments that I spend each 



NAI^OLEON, LOVER AlsD HUSBAND. 231 

day with you ? You are my sole joy, the one being 
who brightens my Hfe, and yet I am supposed to be 
the most highly blessed of mortals." His tone was 
so bitter, his smile so sad, that, overwhelmed by a 
new sentiment of pity for this master of the world, 
she promised to follow him to Paris. 

Mme. Walewska reached Paris in the beginning 
of the year 1808, and thenceforth this mysterious 
liaison, to which Napoleon was som.etimes unfaith- 
ful, but which was nevertheless the grand passion 
of his life, was established on so strange a footing 
that, if one could not find its confirmation in isolated 
details and dates which are authenticated by divers 
witnesses, it would be difficult to follow the chain of 
events and one would not dare to affirm the con- 
tinuity of facts which the best informed contempo- 
raries ignored. 

It is known that during the campaign of 1809 
Mme. Walewska went to Vienna, where an elegant 
establishment awaited her near the Palace of Schoen- 
brunn, that she became enceinte, and after peace was 
declared went to Walewice for her confinement, and 
that there, on the 4th of May, 1810, Alexandre-Flo- 
rian-Joseph Colonna- Walewska, was born. Know- 
ing so much, have we not a right to question 
whether Napoleon's hesitation when treating with 
Austria, his indecision regarding the fate of Poland 



232 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

was not due to the presence of her to whom he 
had solemnly promised the rehabilitation of her 
country ? 

What contemporaries do not tell us is that towards 
the close of 1810, Mme. Walewska, accompanied by 
her sister-in-law the Princess Jablonowska, and her 
infant son, returned to Paris, where she lived first in 
a pretty house on the Chaussee d'Antin, afterwards 
at No. 2 rue du Houssaie and then at No. 48 rue de la 
Victoire. Every morning the Emperor sent to ask 
her orders ; boxes in all the theatres were placed at 
her disposal ; the doors of the museums opened to 
her ; Corvisart was charged to look after her health 
and Duroc to see that her every desire was satisfied 
and her life made as agreeable and easy as possible. 
The following anecdote gives an example of her 
power : 

At Spa, a young Englishman indulged in a joke 
of doubtful taste at the expense of the Princess 
Jablonowska. On her return to Paris the Princess 
invited him to accompany Mme. Walewska and her- 
self to the museum of artillery ; in the gallery 
where armor was displayed the party stopped before 
the armor worn by Jeanne d' Arc, and while the young 
man was looking at it the Maid of France opened 
her arms and, seizing him, pressed him violently to 
her heart ; suffocating, he struggled to escape, but it 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

was only upon the order of Mme. Walewska that 
Jeanne d'Arc released him. Knowing the jealousy 
with which Napoleon guarded his museumSj is this 
not a positive proof of her power ? 

Whenever he could escape from the cares of state 
the Emperor went to her, or had her come to the 
chateau with her son, upon whom he had conferred 
the title of count of the Empire. None in the com- 
pany, with the exception of the Poles, suspected their 
relations, and Mme. Walewska went little into 
society and received only a few compatriots ; her 
household was mounted upon a modest footing and 
her conduct extremely circumspect. When she 
went to take the waters at Spa her sister-in-law ac- 
companied her, and it was at her sister-in-law's 
home, a house at Mons-sur-Orge, called the chateau 
de Bretigny, which was rented from the Duchesse 
de Richelieu, that she passed the summer. They 
essayed vainly to draw her into society, but her 
greatest preoccupation was to hide from the world 
the relations of which the majority of women would 
have been proud. Her country home was situated 
in a secluded spot and conducted in an extremely 
simple style, but it was her universe, and she left it 
as seldom as possible ; nevertheless, she was obliged 
to accept Josephine's repeated invitations to go to 
Malmaison with her son, whom the Empress loaded 



234 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HFSBAND. 

with presents and playthings, but it does not appear 
that she mingled in court society before the year 
1813, and it is only at that epoch that in her person- 
al accounts two court-dresses are mentioned ; one 
was a dress of black velvet with gold-spangled tulle, 
the other of white tulle ; however recherche her cos- 
tumes may have appeared she was certainly not an 
extravagant woman, for her annual bills at Leroy's 
never exceeded six thousand francs. 

It was needless for her to appear at court in order 
to recall herself to Napoleon's memory, proof of 
which lies in a letter written by him from Nogent, 
the 8th of February, 1814 ; in the midst of the terrible 
strain incident to the French campaign, on the day 
following the battle of Brienne, and on the eve of 
that of Champaubert, he thought of Mme. Walewska 
and endeavored to secure her future. He had 
charged the treasurer-general, M. de La Bouillerie to 
settle fifty thousand pounds upon the young Count 
Walewska in such fashion that, in the event of his 
death, his mother should be his heir, and the idea 
that all the formalities had not been fulfilled caused 
him to write this letter : 

"I have received your letter relative to young 
Walewska, I give you carte blanche to do whatever 
is proper ; but act at once. That which preoccupies 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 235 

me most at present is first that boy and then his 
mother. 

Mme. Walewska knew nothing of all this, and 
there never was a more disinterested heart than 
hers. During the last days at Fontainebleau when 
the Emperor, abandoned by all, had sought to find 
in death a refuge which destiny refused him, she 
hastened to his side and spent an entire night in an 
antechamber awaiting his commands. Napoleon, ab- 
sorbed in his gloomy reflections, exhausted by the 
physical crisis through which he had passed, never 
thought of asking for her until she had already been 
gone an hour. "Poor woman," he said, "she will 
believe herself forgotten." 

He little understood her, for a few months later, 
at the end of August, 1814, she landed at Elba, ac- 
companied by her son, her sister and her brother. 
Colonel Laczinski, and spent a day with the Emper- 
or at the hermitage of Marciana. From the mo- 
ment she learned of Napoleon's return to Paris in 
1815 she was among the most devoted and assiduous 
of the women who visited the Elysee and at Mal- 
maison, faithful to the Emperor through his fall 
and misfortunes. 

But after he had gone to St. Helena she thought 



236 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

herself free, and M. Walewska having died in 1814, 
she married at Liege in 1816, General Count 
d'Ornano, who had been obliged to take refuge there 
after the second return of the Bourbons. General 
d'Ornano had been one of the bravest officers of the 
Grand Army, and Mme. Walewska's union with him 
was brief but happy, for she died within the year, 
expiring in her home in the rue de la Victoire on the 
15th of December, 1817. 

One of the Emperor's companions at St. Helena 
tells us, that the news of Mme. Walewska's marriage 
affected His Majesty keenly, as he had preserved a 
warm affection for her and could not reconcile him- 
self to the thought that one whom he had loved 
should care for another. In his will the Emperor 
had expressed his desire that Alexandre Walewska 
should enter the French army ; his career was a 
brilliant one, and as soldier, writer, diplomat and 
statesman his life is too intimately associated with 
the history of his time to render it necessary for us 
to dwell upon it here. 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 237 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

THE DIVORCE. 

The death of Napoleon-Charles destroyed Napo- 
leon's dream of creating an heredity by adoption ; 
the birth of Leon disabused his mind of all doubts 
of his inability to create a direct line, and love for 
Mme. Walewska completed the work by weakening 
Josephine's influence. It is impossible that at Tilsit 
the Emperor directly negotiated an alliance with a 
Eussian grand-duchess, but certain that from the 
moment of his return to France he began paving the 
way for divorce ; his ordinary method of procedure 
was to carry a project into operation as soon as it 
was conceived, but he took two years for the execu- 
tion of this one. 

Mentally Napoleon was fully alive to the advan- 
tages which would accriie to him from a divorce 
and second marriage, but, though his brain was 
willing, his heart's dictates were in opposition to 
his political sagacity, and it was this war within 
himself which kept him in a state of uncertainty 



238 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HTJSBAND. 

from 1807 to 1809, an uncertainty which causes his 
actions to appear inexplicable to the historian, can- 
not be accounted for by political reasons, and was 
due solely to conscientious scruples. 

Before Napoleon could acquire the energy neces- 
sary for the rupture of his marital relations with 
the woman whom he had once passionately loved, 
and raised to share the throne with him, who was 
bound to him by ten years of close companionship, 
and whom, with her children, he had preferred 
above his own flesh and blood, it was essential that 
the ties which bound him should break one by one, 
and a divorce became a necessity. 

Feeling that he was about to do her a great wrong, 
Napoleon attributed to Josephine even more amiable 
qualities than she possessed, and repeatedly said to 
his advisers : " She will not be able to bear it, it will 
kill her ! " and possibly he was superstitious enough 
to believe that his fortunes depended upon her and 
her star ; yet neither vain superstition, fear of the 
criticism of his companions in arms nor of public 
opinion, caused his hesitation, he simply paused for 
a time, listening to the dictates of his heart. 

Weary of the Emperor's vacillations some of those 
who were ardent advocates of the divorce, such as 
Fouche, essayed to hasten the rupture by adroit 
insinuations to Josephine, with the view of determin- 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 239 

ing her to take the initiative and voluntarily sacri- 
fice herself. Napoleon understood that this excess 
of zeal rose from the projects he had formed and 
allowed to be divined, but the more he realized his 
weakness the more it irritated him, and, indignant 
that one of his ministers should fancy he could coerce 
him, that this police spy should have dared to probe 
into his domestic life and show his ugly face in the 
conjugal chamber, he treated Fouche as he had 
never treated any man before, and Josephine, 
astutely advised by Talleyrand, who for some reason 
or another wished to throw an obstacle in Fouche's 
path, profited by her husband's momentary indigna- 
tion and boldly accused him of intending to repu- 
diate her. Napoleon shrinking from the scene which 
was bound to follow an admission of his intention, 
hesitated and was reconquered. 

This renewal of affection for his wife did not 
render him more faithful, for in the sentiment 
which he entertained for Josephine, fidelity had no 
part ; it was a kindly feeling, combined from 
memory, pity and gratitude, but permitting of no 
illusions regarding the youth and beauty of his wife, 
and when he found himself in the society of younger 
and prettier women he saw no reason why he should 
not enjoy it without detriment to his marital rela- 
tions. 



240 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

During the sojourn at Paris and Fontainebleau, 
between August and October of 1807, Mme, Gazzani 
exercised her influence over Napoleon, and it is said 
that at Fontainebleau he also fell a victim to the 
charms of Mme. de B. * * * *, who was a companion 
to the Princess Pauline. This Mme. de B. * * * * 
whose husband was distantly related to the Beau- 
harnais and owed his place at court to his kinship 
with them, was one of the prettiest of women ; she 
was very tall, and some claim that her head and 
features were too small for her figure, but she 
was generally considered a remarkably handsome 
woman ; she was extremely clever, poor, and morally 
unprejudiced. The Emperor saw her at first at a 
hunting-breakfast and signified his admiration for 
her, going so far, it is said, as to write to her. Her 
apartment was on the first floor of the chateau, and 
gave into the garden of Diana, so it was conveniently 
situated for nocturnal visitors, and His Majesty was 
always welcome. Mme. de B. ^*** was well con- 
tent with her position, and the husband, who was 
aged and little troubled by scruples, rubbed his 
hands over it. '^My wife," he said one day, in a 
drawing-room, ''is a woman of wonderful re- 
sources ; we are not rich, yet, thanks to her clever- 
ness, we appear to be ; she is a perfect treasure." 
She worked so well that she made him a chamber- 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 241 

lain to one of the Emperor's imperial brothers and a 
baron of the Empire. This liaison, however, was 
conducted with such secrecy that some have doubted 
if it really existed, and as it was not continued after 
the Emperor left Fontainebleau, the complaisant 
husband's pleasure abated and he had some un- 
pleasant experiences, for Mme. de B. * * * * quarrel- 
ing with the princess because of a brilliant young 
officer, was dismissed from the imperial household 
and obliged to retire to her country-seat, while the 
officer was sent to Spain, where he was grievously 
wounded ; on his return, Mme, de B, * * * * secured 
a divorce and they were married. 

Although Bonaparte had allowed Josephine to 
reassume her sway over him he was still haunted 
by the thought of divorce, the wisdom of which his 
counsellors never permitted him to forget, and it 
was with this step in view that he went to Italy in 
180Y. One of Josephine's greatest disquietudes in 
connection with the divorce was the effect it would 
have upon her son, for although Napoleon had es- 
tablished Eugene in Italy as viceroy in 1805, and 
had married him, in 1806, to the Princess Augusta, 
giving him the title of " Son of France," his 
promises had not been sanctioned by legislative act ; 
he wished, therefore, to reassure both his wife and 

the House of Bavaria, and also to inform himself 
16 



242 NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

regarding a union which had been proposed to him, 
namely, a marriage with the Princess Charlotte of 
Bavaria, and it was doubtless with this alliance in 
view that he arranged a meeting at Milan with the 
Bavarian king, queen and princess. The young girl, 
however, proved less prepossessing than he had an- 
ticipated, and discarding the idea of that alliance 
he left the princess to her strange destiny, and con- 
sidered the advisability of a family alliance. 

Although Lucien Bonaparte's first wife, Catherine 
Boyer, was a woman of most humble origin, the un- 
educated daughter of an innkeeper at Saint-Max- 
imin de Var, Napoleon had loved her like a sister, 
and her young daughter, Lolotte, having reached a 
marriageable age he seriously considered the advisa- 
bility of making her his wife. There was an es- 
trangement between his brother Lucien and himself, 
and the Emperor, who considered family unity es- 
sential, was desirous of effecting a reconciliation, 
and argued that this step might cement Lucien's 
affection for him ; he reasoned that if the dissimi- 
larity between Lolotte's age and his proved too 
great and the young girl showed any repugnance 
at the idea of becoming his wife, or if, on close ac- 
quaintance with her, he should alter his intentions, 
it would be easy to find her a suitable husband from 
some of the royal houses of Europe. He thought 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AISTD HUSBAND. 243 

that, should the marriage take place, the succession 
which he would establish in France would be more 
purely Bonaparte, and hoped that the girl who had 
been very fond of him as a little child would find it 
easy to renew the affection of her youth, Lolotte 
was brought to Paris and placed under the protection 
of her grandmother, Madame Mere, but she did not 
remain long. She amused her father with her letters 
about the doings of the French court, seemingly un- 
suspicious that her correspondence was watched, 
and it was soon clear to Napoleon that a union with 
his niece was not feasible, whereupon he sent her 
back to Italy. Lolotte Bonaparte never wore a crown, 
but in 1815, she married the Prince Gabrielli, and 
lived until 1865. 

The Italian journey, then, was unproductive as 
far as Napoleon's matrimonial projects were con- 
cerned, but Fouche continued to agitate and dissem- 
inate the idea of divorce, thus exposing himself to 
wrathful letters from the Emperor, which did not, 
however, cause him to cease intriguing ; his ordi- 
narily clear perception seemed obscured, his usual 
sagacity at fault, for he failed to see that this was 
not the moment to urge his plans. The perils of 
Eylau, and the conspiracy which was hatched dur- 
ing his absence had not made sufficient impression 
upon the Emperor for him to deem it essential to 



244 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 

leave a living representative in Paris when war 
called him away, and in order to decide him to repu- 
diate Josephine and wed another an extraordinarily 
desirable alliance must be proposed : such a one 
was not at hand, the idea of a Eussian alliance 
having long been abandoned, and Austria having no 
marriageable daughter to offer. 

Almost immediately following Napoleon's return 
from Italy, Mme. Walewska arrived in Paris and 
Napoleon's heart was completely filled with her, 
while his mind was occupied with affairs of state ; 
the Spanish question perplexed him greatly, and 
claiming that that must be settled before he could 
reopen with Alexander the conference begun at 
Tilsit, he gave little thought to the question of di- 
vorce. Talleyrand, however, began to urge the step, 
and to insist that the Emperor should at least come 
to some decision upon the subject. Under the press- 
ure brought to bear upon him Napoleon became so 
excited and nervous that a serious illness seemed 
inevitable ; he had frequent attacks of excruciating 
stomach trouble, and when ill would draw his wife 
down beside him on the bed and weeping sob out 
that he could not leave her. 

It seemed as if Josephine possessed some talisman 
by which she held her husband's affection, and al- 
though he sometimes said that she was old and ugly, 



I^APOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 245 

during their sojourn at Marrac his conduct towards 
her was like that of a youthful lover. In those days 
he apparently forgot that a divorce had ever been 
talked of ; they amused themselves like a couple of 
children let loose from school ; frequently, in the 
presence of the guard of light cavalry that escorted 
them, he chased Josephine across the beach and 
pushed her into the water, laughing like a boy, and 
when the Empress, in her haste, lost her shoes, he 
threw them out to sea and f oi"ced her to drive home 
in her stockings, that he might the better see and 
feel her feet, which he greatly admired. At this 
period he was more alive to Josephine's worth than 
ever before, indeed she never appeared to better ad- 
vantage than upon this journey to Bayonne ; she 
showed herself intelligent, adroit and full of tact 
in the strange interview they were obliged to hold 
with the Spanish sovereigns, and later during the 
triumphal march across the south and west prov- 
inces, when the temperature was so high that in 
order to be at all comfortable they were obliged to 
travel by night, when at each halting place they 
were feted and entertained in exactly the same dull 
manner, when Napoleon was bored in the extreme 
by the ovations, Josephine, in spite of fatigue and 
illness, was always punctual and ready with a 
gracious smile and fitting word for all. It was 



246 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

wonderful how she managed to appear interested in 
everything, in household affairs and children, in all 
which could best please the women ; how she man- 
aged to temper Napoleon's dominant power by her 
gracious smile and caressing manner and to win 
love where he won admiration. She had wonderful 
tact in giving a present, and a way of taking a jewel 
from her own person and offering it to a matron or 
maid which was simply captivating, and understood 
how to make the presentation to an official of an 
obligatory present appear like a token of personal 
esteem. 

Although for four months constantly under the 
charm of Josephine's presence, the desire for divorce 
again took hold of Napoleon ; doubtless it was the 
incentive for the journey of Erfurt, to which place 
he was accompanied by Talleyrand, whose mission it 
was to insinuate to the Emperor Alexander that 
Napoleon was ready to share his throne with one of 
the grand duchesses ; but Talleyrand, instead of 
serving his royal master, unscrupulously betrayed 
him ; it was he who furnished the Eussian Emperor 
with a plan for eluding Napoleon's proposal, sug- 
gested the basis for a new coalition against France, 
and paved the way for the war of 1809. 

From Erfurt, Napoleon was obliged to return at 
once to Paris and the Spanish frontier. He relied 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 247 

upon Alexander's good faith, and fancied that when 
he had quelled the Spanish mutiny, nothing would 
be easier to arrange than the proposed Russian 
alliance. However, it was not a mutiny which 
he had to subdue in Spain but an insurrec- 
tion, and, instead of taking two months to put it 
down, as he had anticipated, he was detained three 
months, and finally achieved but a barren victory. 
Then came news from Paris of plots in his own 
family, who were figuring upon his death, that 
Austria was again in arms, that the archdukes were 
instigating revolt in Germany, and the sacred war 
kept alive by secret societies. Leaving Benavente, 
he spurred to Paris with incredible rapidity, and in 
three months he unmasked traitors, put his affairs 
in order, organized an army, and pushed on to the 
Danube, Austria having attacked and Archduke 
Charles invaded the territory of the confederation ; 
but when at Schoenbrunn, after seventeen months of 
indefatigable action, he had time for refiection, the 
urgent necessity for divorce was made apparent ; 
he not only realized clearly the obligation of assur- 
ing an heredity, but the necessity of having a repre- 
sentative in Paris during his absence, one around 
whom his friends would rally in the case of an 
English invasion or an uprising of the royalists. 
Josephine was no longer at hand to confuse and 



248 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

trouble him by appeals to his conscience, and the 
memory of the years they had passed together, to 
startle him by suggesting that, with the sundering 
of their lives, the star of his destiny would begin to 
wane ; another woman, as agreeable, younger, and 
more beautiful, next whose heart lay a child of his, 
was at his side, and so the question, which for two 
long years had vexed his spirit and wrung his heart, 
was finally settled. So long as Napoleon doubted if 
he could have children he had schemed, planned and 
invented every imaginable combination for the 
foundation of an heredity, but now that he knew 
that he could found a line of kings, that his descend- 
ants might sit upon the throne of France, it was 
plain to him that a second marriage was the only 
practical step, that a direct heir alone could ensure 
the stability of the Empire. 

In order to spare both Josephine and himself, and 
avoid further painful scenes, he wrote from Vienna 
ordering that the communicating doors between his 
apartments and the Empress's at Fontainebleau 
be walled up, and when Josephine joined him at the 
chateau, he refused to grant her a private interview 
and remained closeted with his ministers ; from that 
time, he so arranged that they were never alone to- 
gether, and thus avoided any explanations or private 
conversation regarding his intentions. Napoleon 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 249 

essayed to make Hortense announce his decision to 
her mother, and, when she refused, summoned Eu- 
gene from Italy for the purpose ; but when he knew 
his stepson to be on the way, he mustered up his 
courage and provoked the supreme conversation 
wherein he must declare to his wife his irrevocable 
determination to divorce her. 

So at last fell the blow which Josephine had been 
dreading for years, for the avoidance of which she 
had deployed all her charms, the fear of which had 
poisoned her life ; she knew that further effort was 
futile, and although she wept and fainted when the 
Emperor finally announced his decision, it was rather 
with the view of making the best of the situation 
for herself and children than from excess of feeling ; 
she wished her son's position firmly established, her 
own debts paid, and an ample income settled upon 
her ; she desired to preserve the rank and prerog- 
atives of an Empress, and above all that she should 
not be forced to leave Paris. Napoleon granted all 
that she asked, the Elysee was given her as a town 
residence, the domain of Malmaison for a country 
seat, and the chateau of Navarre as a hunting-lodge ; 
and a yearly income of three millions, the title, the es- 
cort, and the customary retinue of a reigning Em- 
press were assured her ; thus he prepared for his 
divorced wife a place in the state which was unpar- 



250 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

alleled in history, unless a like example could be 
found among the annals of Eome and Byzantium.. 

But Napoleon gave his divorced wife more than 
money, palaces and titles, he gave her his sympathy 
and his tears. He sent almost hourly for news of 
her, desiring to know how she passed her time away 
from him, and like the most faithful and tender of 
lovers, wrote her letter after letter, and insisted that 
all who surrounded her should visit him that he 
might glean from them every item of interest re- 
garding the daily life of the woman he had repu- 
diated ; there was no attention, kindness, or favor 
that he did not lavish upon her, so conscious was he 
of the wrong he had done ; what he wished was that 
she should accept the inevitable with fortitude, and, 
making the best of her new situation, relieve him of 
the pain of knowing her unhappy through his will. 

Nevertheless, when he went to Malmaison to see 
and console Josephine he never embraced her or 
entered her private apartments, but so arranged 
that his visits should have an air of formality, for 
he wished that both she and the world should know 
that all was ended. This conduct bears witness to 
his respect for Josephine, showing that he would not 
permit any one to think that the wife of yesterday 
had become the mistress of to-day ; perhaps, too, he 
doubted of his ability to maintain his distant de- 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 251 

meanor save when supported by witnesses, and his 
conduct shows how strong, powerful and tender 
was his affection for this woman ; an affection 
which had outHved youth and beauty, and, in spite 
of all strains, remained to the last the great love 
of his life. 



252 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

MARIE-LOUISE. 

Up to this period all the women with whom Na- 
poleon had been intimately connected had been con- 
sidered by him as his inferiors, for, surrounded by 
women of the noblest blood of France, Montmoren- 
cies, Mortemarts and Lavals, he had learned to es- 
timate the social worth of the Beauharnais family 
correctly, and the influence which Josephine had 
exercised over him through her supposed prestige 
had long since vanished. None of his mistresses 
had been sufficiently high-born to flatter his vanity 
by her rank and worldly position ; indeed, he does 
not seem to have attempted conquests of that kind, 
or, if he did, must have been early discouraged ; 
moreover, in order to satisfy his egotism and ambi- 
tion something more than a marriage with a noble 
family of France was necessary. Such an alliance 
was made possible by the Emperor of Austria's prof- 
fer of the hand of his eldest daughter Marie-Louise ; 
this alliance Napoleon believed would assist him to 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 253 

climb the last step towards equality with his prede- 
cessors upon the French throne, and the Napoleonic 
system which he had endeavored to establish and to 
strengthen by intermarriages between the Bona- 
partes and the various reigning families of Europe, 
would, by his marriage, become amalgamated with 
the house of Austria, even as the Bourbons had been 
before him, his dynasty would lose its improvised 
air, and on assuming the quartering of the house of 
Austria gain the relationships which seemed to him 
to constitute the only strong and durable political 
tie. 

In this alliance Napoleon's ambition found satis- 
faction, but how could his dominant spirit accommo- 
date itself to a wife who had from birth the con- 
sciousness of her rank and worth, and the belief in 
her own infallibility common to those born in the 
purple. By a strange hazard the young girl who 
was offered to him had been so educated as to have 
no will save that of her father, to realize that her 
interests were subordinate to those of her nation, 
that she was destined to play a role in some political 
combination, and that she must accept without a 
murmur the marriage which the political interests 
of her country imposed upon her ; it was with this 
object in view that Marie-Louise's character had 
been moulded from earliest infancy. She had been 



254 NAPOLEON, loy:eii and husband. 

taught all languages, German, English, French, 
Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Bohemian and even Latin, 
for it was impossible to foresee where her destiny- 
would lead her ; moreover, it was argued, that the 
more extended her vocabulary, the greater the 
number of words at her command for the expres- 
sion of an idea, the less ideas she was likely to have. 
Her talents for music and drawing had been en- 
couraged and cultivated as those accomplishments 
provided an innocent means of distraction for a 
princess wherever she might find herself ; the teach- 
ings of the Church had been given her literally, and 
minute attention to all its forms inculcated, but all 
questions of dogma were avoided, for it was possible 
that fate would give the Austrian princess a heretic 
for a husband. Her education included a system of 
morals which only the casuists of Spain could have 
advised ; the archduchess was kept in ignorance 
regarding the difference in sex, the barnyard was 
peopled only by hens, she had no little dogs, only 
bitches, her riding horse was a mare, her books 
were pitilessly expurged, pages, lines, even words 
being cut out, without its occurring to the censor 
that the gulfs thus created would give the arch- 
duchess food for thought. The princess was con- 
tinually under the surveillance of a court lady, who 
directed the management of her apartments, was 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 255 

present at her lessons, invented her games, and 
watched the servants and teachers ; this lady never 
left her pupil, either by night or day, and, as politics 
played an important part in the princess's destiny, 
the incumbent of this position changed with each 
new ministry, and Marie-Louise had five governesses 
in eighteen years ; her education, however, was regu- 
lated by such rigid laws that, despite all changes in 
her suite, she remained the same. 

Marie-Louise's amusements were such as are com- 
mon to a conventual life ; she had flowers to culti- 
vate, birds to take care of, and sometimes lunched 
under the trees with her governess's daughter ; her 
holidays were spent in the intimacy of the family in 
pleasant but bourgeois fashion ; she never partici- 
pated in the gaieties of the court, and had made but 
one or two short journeys in order that she might 
have change of air. The event which had made the 
greatest impression upon her, and which had given 
her the most distraction, were her flights before the 
French invasions, when discipline had been relaxed 
and tasks laid aside ; thus it was not a woman who 
was offered to Napoleon but a child, accustomed to 
live under such strict rules that any life would seem 
sweet by comparison, and for whom the simplest 
pleasures would possess a charm. 

Marie-Louise's education was identical with that 



256 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

given to the daughters of Marie-Therese and the re- 
sult of this method, as exemplified by Marie- Antoi- 
nette at Versailles, Marie-Caroline at Naples and 
Marie- Amelie at Parma, was not desirable — and it 
was to be dreaded lest the nature of the young Aus- 
trian princess which had been so repressed would 
expand in the same way as her aunt's ; Napoleon, 
however, reasoned that husbands are responsible for 
their wives' conduct, and laid his plans accordingly. 
The school-girl who was to pass into his keeping 
should simply leave the convents of Schoenbrunn 
and Laxenburg for that of the Tuileries and Saint- 
Cloud, she should live under the same inflexible 
rules, the same rigorous surveillance, she should 
have no freedom in the choice of friendships and 
read no book which had not been previously scanned ; 
no masculine visitors should be permitted, and her 
governess should be replaced by a lady of honor and 
four ladies-in-waiting who should be perpetually on 
guard ; the only difference in her life should be the 
presence of a husband. 

Thus since the husband was obliged to teach his 
wife all that her parents had taken pains to conceal 
from her, he resolved to supplement the enlighten- 
ment by great precautions, and determined that no 
man, however high or low his position upon the 
social ladder, should remain for one instant alone 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 257 

with the Empress. He re-established the etiquette 
of Louis XIV. 's time, the rigidity of which had been 
relaxed through the indifference of Louis XY, and 
the feebleness of Louis XVI. ; but where royalty 
veiled its distrust under the disguise of traditional 
honors, employing the highest ladies in the land to 
watch the queen under the pretext of keeping her 
company, Napoleon brought into play undisguised 
military discipline ; he was not actuated by jealousy, 
but simply by motives of prudence and precaution ; 
he had once said at a state's council : "Adultery is 
the affair of a moment," and he was convinced, 
perhaps by experience, that a tete-a-tete between a 
man and a woman easily became criminal. With 
such a distrust of woman Napoleon would doubtless 
have found the Oriental system quite to his taste, 
but as it was not customary among Europeans to 
seclude their wives in a harem he was obliged to re- 
place eunuchs by ladies-in-waiting, and iron bars by 
etiquette, but, save for the name, the prison was 
the same. The imprisonment accepted, he in- 
tended to give to his wife every material pleasure 
which she could desire ; but the pleasures which he 
offered her were almost identical with those which 
a Sultan gives to his favorite odalisque. 

While at Vienna Marie-Louise ignored the pleas- 
ure of elegant dresses, exquisite laces, rare shawls 



258 NAPOLEOlf, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 

and dainty linen ; in Paris, provided that no mer- 
chant approached her and she made her selections 
through the medium of a lady of the wardrobe, 
she should have every beautiful thing which French 
industry could produce, and Napoleon gave her a 
foretaste of the luxuries which were to be hers in 
the corbeille which he sent her, of which he inspected 
each article and had it packed under his super- 
vision. The corbeille included twelve dozen chemise 
of the finest batiste, trimmed with embroidery and 
Valenciennes, twenty-four dozen handkerchiefs, 
twenty-four night-dresses, thirty-six skirts, and 
twenty-four night-caps, at a cost of fifty-one 
thousand, one hundred and fifty-six francs. 

In addition the corbeille contained eighty-one 
thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine francs' worth 
of laces, exclusive of a point-d'Alen9on shawl, 
which was valued at three thousand two hundred 
francs ; sixty-four dresses from Leroy costing one 
hundred and twenty-six thousand, nine hundred 
and seventy-six francs ; seventeen cashmere shawls 
valued at thirty-nine thousand, eight hundred and 
sixty francs ; twelve dozen stockings, ranging in 
price from eighteen to seventy-two francs a pair, 
and sixty pairs of shoes and slippers of all colors and 
fabrics, which had been made according to measures 
sent from Vienna, and were so small that Napoleon, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 259 

as he examined them, remarked that it was a good 
sign. Everything that Paris could produce that 
was beautiful and rare was presented to her, and 
yearly she might have almost as much. As for her 
toilet alone, she was to have an allowance of thirty 
thousand francs a month. 

As a girl, Marie-Louise had owned but one or two 
jewels, whose value was so insignificant that the 
wife of a Paris shopkeeper would have disdained 
them ; a couple of hair bracelets, a necklace of seed 
pearls and another of green beads had comprised her 
ornaments ; as Empress she was to have diamonds 
of enormous value ; the thirteen stones which sur- 
rounded the portrait which the Emperor sent her 
alone cost six hundred thousand francs, a diamond 
necklace costing nine hundred thousand francs, and 
a pair of ear-rings costing four hundred thousand 
francs, and a still finer parure composed of a diadem, 
comb, ear-rings, necklace and belt contained two 
thousand, two hundred and fifty-seven large stones 
and three hundred and six rose diamonds. She was 
to have a parure of emeralds and diamonds valued 
at two hundred and eighty-nine thousand, eight 
hundred and sixty-five francs ; one of opal and 
diamonds costing two hundred and seventy-five 
thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three francs ; one 
of ruby and diamonds and another of turquoise and 



260 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

diamonds, all of imraense value, without counting 
the diamond ornaments furnished by the crown and 
appraised at three million, three hundred and twenty- 
five thousand, seven hundred and twenty-four 
francs. 

The apartments which she had inhabited in Aus- 
tria had been furnished in the simplest manner, in 
France magnificent rooms which had been re-deco- 
rated and furnished under the Emperor's personal 
supervision awaited her coming, and in order to 
spare her any feeling of strangeness the Emperor 
ordered that all toilet articles and small pieces of 
furniture likely to be in daily use should be dupli- 
cated ; thus, in whatever palace she went to reside, 
the articles to which she was accustomed should be 
at hand. When the work of the furnishing of the 
apartments was complete the Emperor was so proud 
of his success as a decorator that he invited all his 
guests to view them, and at the Tuileries he himself 
conducted the king and queen of Bavaria to inspect 
the rooms, taking them by the way of a dark and 
narrow staircase which led from his own dressing- 
room to the Empress's bed-chamber ; the staircase 
was so narrow that the king, who was extremely 
corpulent, was obliged to descend sideways, and 
when they arrived at the foot, the door leading into 
the apartment destined for the Empress was found 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 261 

to be locked and they were obliged to turn about in 
the dark and narrow space and remount the stair- 
case — a movement which was executed with great 
difficulty because of his Bavarian Majesty's great 
size. At Compiegne it was the Emperor also who 
did the honors of the Empress's bathroom to the 
Queen of Westphalia, displaying to her the marble 
bath and furniture and hangings of India stuffs 
which had cost four hundred thousand francs. 

For the good of her stomach Marie-Louise's 
governesses had forbidden all rich food, but the 
Emperor, foreseeing that, like most Viennese, she 
would have a taste for goodies, took upon himself 
the ordering of her table, multiplying the deserts 
with cakes and ices and bon-bons, 

Marie-Louise had a generous nature, but up to the 
time of her marriage had had nothing to give save 
such samples of her own handicraft as she had been 
taught to make ; as Empress she was enabled to 
shower presents upon her family. Napoleon setting 
her an example by sending handsome presents to 
her people even before she arrived in France. It 
was not possible to assert that she had a taste for 
the theatre, as she had never seen a play, but Napo- 
leon believed that she would not be of her country 
and her time if she had not, and planned for her 
amusement in that way, both when she accompanied 



262 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

him to the theatre or preferred to have the actors 
play in the palace ; in short it was his intention that 
she should have everything which would distract 
and amuse her so long as it was in accordance with 
the secluded life he had planned. It was not his in- 
tention that she should leave her apartments save 
for great civil and religious ceremonies, state balls, 
the theatre, the hunt, and such journeys as might be 
necessary, and upon these occasions she was to be 
surrounded by her ladies of honor and officers, and, 
arrayed in court costume, laden with jewels, she 
was to remain in haughty isolation, to be wor- 
shipped by all classes from afar like an idol. 

Thus he essayed to gild the bars of the prison 
which he had prepared for the Austrian princess, 
dreaming to keep her a child, and imagining that 
she would pass, without feeling the transition, from 
captive archduchess to captive empress ; thus he 
sought to assure himself of her fidelity and so to ar- 
range her life that she should be, like Caesar's wife, 
above suspicion. The woman whom he thus planned 
to seclude had in his eyes a mission to fulfil, to be 
the mother of his children ; she was the mould des- 
tined to receive and develop the dynastic germ, and 
it was in order to assure the legitimacy of his de- 
scendants that he took so many precautions : he acted 
not unwisely, for the doctrine of monarchical sue- 



KAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HTISBAXD. 263 

cession hinges upon the unquestionable legitimacy 
of offspring. 

Napoleon did not doubt that Marie-Louise-would 
become a mother, having informed himself minute- 
ly regarding her health and physical being, and 
knowing her family to be prolific, her mother 
having had thirteen children, her grandmother 
seventeen, and her great grandmother twenty-six, 
and he was impatient for her arrival that he might 
insure the future of his race. 

Napoleon had received Marie-Louise's portrait, 
which represented a young woman with long, blonde 
hair parted in heavy masses and brushed back on 
each side from a high forehead, eyes of china blue, 
a nose slightly indented at the base, thick lips, heavy 
chin, white but rather prominent teeth and a com- 
plexion marred by the ravages of smallpox ; the 
shoulders were large and white, the bust remark- 
ably full, and the arms, which were long and thin, 
terminated in small and pretty hands, while her 
foot was charming. He had been told that she was 
tall for a woman, and neither graceful nor supple, 
but an easy carriage Napoleon thought could be 
acquired, and what he most desired was that her 
appearance should show the characteristics of her 
race. 

When Lejeune, General Berthier's aide-de-camp, 



264 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

arrived at Compiegne, preceding Marie-Louise by 
several days, Napoleon had the portrait which he 
had received from Vienna brought into the room 
and proceeded to question the young officer as to 
the likeness ; happily Lejeune was an artist as well 
as a soldier, and was able to show the Emperor a 
sketch in profile which he had himself made of the 
archduchess. "Ah," exclaimed Napoleon, "she 
has the real Austrian lip ! " and going to the table 
upon which lay a number of medals with the heads 
of various Austrian sovereigns thereon, he compared 
the various profiles and recognized with pleasure 
that his future Empress was a true Habsburg. 

Prom the moment the negotiations were concluded, 
that he knew his dream about to be fulfilled. 
Napoleon burned with impatience for possession ; in 
vain he essayed to distract his thoughts by hunting, 
but the idea haunted him ; he spoke of it to every 
one and he wished the preparations for the 
reception finished before they had begun. On its 
being represented to him that it would be difficult 
to turn the grand salon of the Louvre into a 
chapel because of the immense pictures which it was 
difficult to dispose of, he responded : " Well, then, 
burn them ! " 

He was preoccupied with the impression which he 
would make and he ordered from Leger, who was 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 265 

Murat's tailor, a court costume literally covered 
with embroidery, but on trying it on found it so 
uncomfortable that he was unable to wear it. He 
ordered boots from a new shoemaker, in order to 
have finer shoes than those he had hitherto worn 
and took dancing-lessons, wishing to learn to waltz, 
but he only succeeded in bringing on an attack of 
heart trouble, which forced him to abandon the 
lessons. As Catherine of Westphalia wrote to her 
father : '' Neither you nor I would ever have im- 
agined Napoleon capable of such things." 

In measure as the cortege from Vienna advanced 
his impatience increased. At last he could wait no 
longer. Marie-Louise slept at Vitry on the 26th of 
March, on the 27th she was due at Soisson, and it 
was not until the 28th that the Emperor was to join 
her. The programme of the ceremonial was printed, 
the pavilion where the meeting was to take place 
was built and decorated, the troops were commanded 
and the repast prepared, nevertheless, on the morn- 
ing of the 27th, in a pouring rain. Napoleon left 
Compiegne in company with Murat, and without an 
escort or suite, rode to Courcelles where he awaited 
Marie-Louise's coming under the shelter of a church 
porch. At last the coach with its eight horses 
appeared and stopped for relays. Napoleon advanced 
to the side of the carriage, the groom of the chambers 



266 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

announced him, his sister Caroline, who was con- 
ducting the bride, presented him to Marie-Louise, 
and dripping with rain he entered the carriage, 
which drove rapidly off. They rushed past villages 
where the mayors, address in hand, waited to receive 
them, through cities en fHe and at last, at nine 
o'clock in the evening, without having broken the 
day's fast, they arrived at Compiegne. The Emperor 
cut short the addresses of welcome, presentations 
and compliments, and, taking Marie-Louise by the 
hand, conducted her to his private apartment ; there 
the young girl had reason to remember the lesson 
which her father had instilled — obedience to her 
husband in all things. 

The following noon the Emperor had his break- 
fast served at the Empress's bedside by one of her 
maids, and during the day he said to one of his 
generals: "My friend, marry a German, they are 
the best women in the world, good, amiable, innocent, 
and fresh as a rose." Napoleon appears to have 
disregarded or disdained the criticisms which would 
naturally follow upon his action in assuming that 
the marriage by proxy was all that was necessary, 
and his consummation of it before the subsequent 
ceremonials had taken place, and justified his con- 
duct by saying : '*' Henry IV. did the same." 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK, AND HUSBAND. 267 



MAEIE-LOUISE. 

PART II. 

Three months after her marriage Marie-Louise 
said to Metternich : "I am not afraid of Napoleon, 
but I begin to think he is of me. " Thus three months 
had sufficed to banish the terrible fear which from 
Vienna to Compiegne had caused her such mortal 
terror that it had affected her physical well-being. 
But how was it possible that Napoleon should have 
become timid in the presence of this girl of eighteen ? 
In taking this Austrian princess to wife he realized 
the dream of years, and from a purely physical de- 
sire for the possession of the high-born girl had grown 
a desire to be the object of her affection, as well as 
the husband assigned her by the political interests 
of her country ; he wished to know that he possessed 
her heart, and desired that she should proclaim her 
happiness. 

One morning when they were at the Tuileries the 
Emperor sent for Metternich and closeted him with 
the Empress ; at the end of an hour he rejoined them 



268 NAPOLEON, LOVER AISTD HUSBAND. 

and said to the ambassador : ' ' Well, have yoM had 
a good talk, has the Empress laughed or cried, had 
she many complaints to make ? " Then, seeing that 
the ambassador was embarrassed, he added : ^'Oh, 
I do not expect you to give me a detailed account of 
your conversation ; it is private matter between you 
and the Empress ; " nevertheless, on the following 
day, he questioned Metternich minutely, and as 
the latter was not inclined to enlighten him, he 
exclaimed : " The Empress has no complaints to 
make, and I hope you will say so to your sovereign, 
as he will rely implicitly upon what you say." In 
reality it was rather himself than the Austrian em- 
peror whom he sought to reassure ; he wished to be- 
lieve that his wife was devoted to him, that she was 
contented with the life he forced her to lead, and 
hid from him no lingering sentiment of distrust and 
dislike. Aspiring to domestic peace and happiness, 
he longed for the assurance of Marie-Louise's affec- 
tion and the realization of his desires. 

From childhood the Austrian princess had shared 
the universal hatred of Bonaparte. When only six 
years old her mother had told her that Monseigneur 
Bonaparte, the Corsican, had fled from Egypt, desert- 
ing his army, and had become a Turk ; she believed 
firmly that he had been in the habit of beating his 
ministers, and had slain two of his generals with his 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 269 

own hand, and the year preceding her marriage — 
the year which had seen Vienna homharded, and 
witnessed the battles of Eckmiihl, Essling and 
Wagram — she had considered him one of the most 
despicable of beings. After Znaim Marie-Louise 
wrote to a friend : ' ' I am consumed with fury 
against Napoleon, yet I am obliged to sit at table 
with one of his marshals ; " and when his divorce 
was announced, and the question of a second mar- 
riage began to be discussed she never admitted for 
a moment that the French conqueror's choice might 
fall upon her. "My father," she said, " is too kind 
to coerce me in a matter of such importance." She 
pitied Napoleon's possible choice, being sure that 
it would not be she who would be the victim of polit- 
ical expediency ; and when the project of her mar- 
riage was discussed, she wrote to a friend of her 
childhood : '' Pray for me, for, while I am ready to 
sacrifice my personal happiness for the welfare of 
my country, I am most unhappy." Though in 
reality the Austrian princesses had no voice in the 
disposal of their hands and no opinion save that of 
their father, for form's sake, Marie-Louise's consent 
to the marriage was asked, and she resigned herself 
to the inevitable, while mentally regarding her 
future husband as an ogre. When one considers 
the situation her feeling was not unnatural ; four 



270 NAPOLEOl^, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 

times the French conqueror had devastated her coun- 
try, twice he had entered Vienna as a victor ; he had 
forced her royal father to go to his camp, suing for 
peace ; every sentiment of patriotism and fihal affec- 
tion, the most sacred of human emotions, the most 
sensitive chord in noble pride had been outraged 
by him ; yet, strange as it may appear, Marie- 
Louise once wed her repugnance was not apparent. 
Whether this was due to the education which she 
had received, or whether her natural temperament 
was awakened and she enjoyed the good things 
which Napoleon provided for her — luxuries to which 
she was unaccustomed, — and found his person- 
ality not displeasing, or whether her contentment 
was feigned, it is impossible to affirm ; but it is prob- 
able that the first supposition is correct, and Napo- 
leon did all in his power to prove to her that he was, 
and would remain, a good husband. At the begin- 
ning of the Consulate he had ceased to share his 
chamber with Josephine, pretending that his work 
and duties rendered it necessary, but in reality to 
insure his own freedom ; he was prepared, however, 
if Marie-Louise exacted it, to reassume the chain, 
for he said : '' It is a woman's rightful appanage ; " 
but their temperaments were too dissimilar ; while 
he, always chilly, wished a fire kept up all the year 
round, she, accustomed to a cold climate and a 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 271 

Spartan-like existence in the immense and glacial 
palaces of the environs of Vienna, could not stand 
heated rooms. Frequently, with the uxoriousness 
of a young husband, he urged Marie-Louise to spend 
the night with him, but she always responded that 
he kept his rooms too warm ; while on going to her 
apartments he would find the temperature too low 
for him and order a fire lighted, but he invariably 
deferred to Marie-Louise's contrary opinion with 
the remark that "Her Majesty's will was law," 
and, after shivering for a short period, would go 
away. 

This difference in their temperaments and indif- 
ference on her part paved the way for infidelities, 
but Napoleon does not appear to have thought of 
such a thing, or, if he did, he hid his amours care- 
fully and they were but passing. In 1811 he appears 
to have paid some attention to the Princess Aldo- 
brandini-Borghese, nee Mile, de Rochefaucauld, to 
whom he had given a dowry of eight hundred 
thousand francs and married to the brother-in-law 
of Pauline Bonaparte, and whom he had, just named 
lady-in-waiting ; but it is probable that he simply 
admired the manner and elegance of the young 
woman, who is said to have been charming. There 
was also some talk, and some gossip in private cor^ 
respondence, regarding the Duchess of Montebello, 



272 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

who was one of the Empress's ladies of honor, but 
there is no proof of a liaison ; such adventures as he 
did permit himself were obscure and carefully dis- 
simulated, creating no gossip, simply because no one 
knew anything about them. The first amour which 
caused any gossip had its birth at Caen where the 
Emperor met Mme. Pellapra of the Testa-Cubieres 
suit. Napoleon again met Mme. Pellapra at Lyons 
on his return from Elba in 1815, and then pam- 
phleteers attacked " Mme. Ventreplat " to their 
hearts' content. At Saint- Cloud there was a little 
love-affair with a certain Lise B * * * * but it never 
reached serious proportions ; beyond this his marital 
behavior towards Marie-Louise was exemplary. 

Bonaparte imagined that the young Empress felt 
aggrieved at his visits to Josephine at Malmaison and 
to Mme. Walewska in the rue de la Victoire, al- 
though the former had become yearly less frequent 
in proportion as Josephine's conduct became more 
and more displeasing, and were made with great 
privacy, while the latter were so secret that few 
were cognizant of them. On the officers who com- 
posed his suite when he visited Malmaison and on 
those who were aware of his friendship with Mme. 
Walewska he imposed caution and secrecy, saying 
on each occasion : " Knowledge of this visit would 
cause my wife unnecessary pain." After his second 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 273 

marriage his entire manner of life changed ; there 
remained to him from his poor, solitary and melan- 
choly youth, which was devoid of the amusements 
natural to his age, a taste for noisy and active sports 
and in that respect he, with his forty-one years and 
Marie-Louise with her eighteen, were well matched ; 
if possible he was the bigger child of the two, and he 
entered with zest into amusements suitable for a 
collegian. The young Empress had proposed but one 
amendment to the cloister-like existence mapped out 
for her, she desired to ride horseback, which was an 
exercise habitual with the princesses of Lorraine 
as soon as they escaped the maternal rule ; Marie- 
Antoinette had done the same, and there is a record 
of Marie-Therese's objurgations. Napoleon himself 
acted as riding-master to his young wife, and during 
the first lessons ran at her horse's side, bridle in 
hand, until she had acquired sufficient confidence to 
ride alone, then daily the horses were ordered im- 
mediately after breakfast, and, without taking time 
to put on his boots, the Emperor would throw him- 
self into the saddle, and in his stocking-feet gallop 
up and down the Grande AUee after his wife, excit- 
ing the horses to run and greatly amused by her 
cries and laughter ; about every ten feet a groom 
was stationed in order to avoid any accident to the 

Empress, but it often happened that the Emperor 
18 



274 KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

had the most falls. In the evening, in the intimacy 
of the household, he organized all kinds of games, 
such as blind-man's-buff, puss-in-the-corner, cushion- 
and-keys and games of forfeits in which he took an 
active part. Up to this time Marie-Louise's only 
social accomplishment was the ability to move her 
ear without moving a muscle of her face, but she 
now learned to play billiards, for which game she 
developed such a passion and so much talent, that 
the Emperor was obliged to take lessons of one of his 
chamberlains before he could meet her on equal 
terms ; she also had a fancy for sketching his pro- 
file and he was always ready to pose for her, although 
he refused to sit for any painter ; he listened atten- 
tively, when, seated at the piano, she played German 
sonatas, although he had but little taste for that 
style of music, and manifested a proper degree of 
interest when she showed him the suspenders or sash 
she was embroidering for him. He was always at 
her side, devoted and attentive, endeavoring to 
amuse and distract his '^ good Marie-Louise," and 
his bourgeois habit of addressing her in the second 
person amazed the court, which had returned to the 
rigid etiquette of Louis XIV. 's time. Such an exist- 
ence and such manners did not shock Marie-Louise, 
she soon accustomed herself to the new manner of 
life and addressed her husband with the familiar 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 275 

" thou," gave friendly nicknames to her sisters-in-law 
and called Madame Mere ''mamma" ; but all this 
affability rested upon a condition, that her husband 
should never leave her, but should always be at her 
disposition, and he who, up to that moment, had 
regulated his days according to his occupations and 
the demands of state, was now constrained to con- 
ciliate his occupations — sometimes to sacrifice them 
— to the tastes and caprices of his wife. 

It had previously been the Emperor's habit to 
breakfast alone and hurriedly, upon the corner of 
his writing-table (when business permitted him to 
breakfast at all), but he resigned himself to break- 
fasting with his wife at a fixed hour, taking from 
affairs of state the time for an elaborate repast which 
was most distasteful to him. Between the years of 
1810 and 1812 the royal pair took five long journeys, 
visiting Normandy, Belgium, Holland, the Rhine 
and Dresden, and it was not she who waited for the 
Emperor as Josephine had done, it was the hus- 
band's turn to cultivate his patience, for Marie- 
Louise was never on time for any social function ; 
he made all his personal tastes subservient to hers 
and was not only a faithful but a loving and attentive 
husband, never missing an occasion to give his wife 
a pleasure. The magnificent present which he made 
his wife of a parure of Brazilian rubies, costing 



276 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

four hundred thousand francs, when she had only 
wished for one valued at forty-six thousand, and 
the superb necklace, consisting of eight strings of 
pearls, which cost five hundred thousand francs, 
which he presented to her after her confinement and 
which was stolen from Blois, were simply imperial. 
The fact which shows the lover in the husband were 
the manifold little presents which he gave her, such 
as bracelets, bearing the date of some occasion which 
had been particularly joyous, loving words or names 
spelt out in precious stones, a ad was it not a procla- 
mation of her affection when she had her own por- 
trait framed in precious stones whose initial letters 
formed the words " Louise, je faime,'' and placed 
it upon her husband's writing desk. 

If Napoleon had not loved his young wife he would 
not have taken umbrage at the slightest reference 
to his affection in the newspaper or to a verse where- 
in he was represented as a love-sick shepherd ; as it 
was, the moment he saw the slightest reference to 
his affection in print he felt as though its sanctity 
had been violated, and immediately wrote a furious 
letter to the minister of police, wherein he did not 
deny his love, but insisted that the newspapers should 
not be permitted to comment upon it. Thinking to 
strengthen his wife's affection, he showered valuable 
presents of every description upon each member of 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 277 

her family, and favors upon all the Austrians at his 
court. 

Despite time, the love which Marie-Louise mani- 
fested, and the precautions for his marital security 
which he had taken, and which were still carefully 
observed, he continued to be suspicious, and when 
the war with Eussia called him from home he 
arranged that a detailed account of his wife's daily 
life and actions should be sent him by each courier ; 
these letters were written by an illiterate person 
upon the commonest of paper, and upon these 
wretched scrawls he, who was usually so scrupulous 
and critical, wrote questions and notes ; and yet in 
spite of this continual surveillance he dared not 
openly take his wife to task when anything dis- 
pleased him, but strove to find an intermediary to 
express his disapproval. 

Upon one occasion the Empress, while walking in 
the park at Saint-Cloud with Mme. de Montebello, 
allowed the duchess to present one of her relations 
and spoke with him for some moments ; the follow- 
ing morning after the levee the Emperor detained 
the Austrian ambassador and recounted the affair, 
and upon Metternich's feigning not to comprehend 
what was wanted of him. Napoleon frankly explained 
that he wished the ambassador to speak to the Em- 
press, and the Austrian refusing he insisted, saying ; 



278 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

"The Empress is young and might misunderstand 
my motives, attributing them to jealousy, while 
what you would say to her would make quite a dif- 
ferent impression." 

Napoleon's best beloved mistress, she who had 
most occupied his thoughts, was power, and this 
power which he had refused to give to Josephine, of 
which he had been so jealous that neither his two 
oldest counsellors, his brothers, nor any living being 
had he ever even given a shadow of authority, he 
gave, in 1813, in that time which was most perilous 
for his empire, to Marie-Louise ; making her regent 
of the Empire. 

Doubtless there was more shadow than substance 
in this abandonment, and that no grave decision 
could be taken without his consent ; it is probable 
that a premonition of disaster assailed him even in 
Kussia, and that by this act he intended to assure 
the transmission of his crown, but in any case it en- 
tailed a stripping of some of his dearly loved au- 
thority, and he had not hesitated. Decrees were 
signed in his name by the Empress, by her pardons 
were accorded, nominations made and proclamations 
issued ; the bulletins by which, since 1800, the master 
announced his victories, distributed his glory and 
gave the accounts of his conquests, were things 
of the past, and it was : "Her Imperial Majesty, 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK, AND HUSBAND. 279 

Queen and Regent, who had received from the army 
information," and the conscripts for the unfortu- 
nate army were called " Marie-Louise men " by the 
people. 

From head to foot of the governmental ladder 
weaknesses manifested themselves and treachery 
succeeded. Napoleon was no longer there, even his 
name had disappeared, while that of Marie-Louise 
was feared by none and meant nothing to the people ; 
still, Napoleon would not alter his decree, applauded 
the step he had taken, and believed that his wife 
knew more than Cambaceres or than all the Bona- 
partes put together, and the nearer the catastrophe, 
the more imminent the peril, the more tenaciously 
he clung to the idea that she, she alone, would be 
his salvation. 

By chance — for she was not responsible for his 
departure from Paris, the capitulation and all the 
rest — Marie-Louise caused his final downfall. 
Napoleon wrote her a letter, not in cipher, wherein 
he indicated the movements which he intended to 
attempt against the allied armies ; this letter fell 
into the hands of Bluecher's courier, and General , 
Bluecher made haste to lay it, with the seal broken, 
at the feet of the august daughter of his Imperial 
Majesty the Emperor of Austria. 



280 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER XVin. 

ELBA. 

It is doubtful if Napoleon was actuated solely by 
love in the pursuance of the course described in the 
preceding chapter, and highly probable that his 
actions were entirely due to motives of policy. He 
probably argued that when the Austrian Emperor 
found himself face to face with his daughter and 
grandson as the representatives of France, he would 
hesitate to strike the blow which would ruin them, 
and that the sovereigns of Europe, not finding him- 
self, but one of their own rank seated upon the 
French throne, would hesitate to overthrow it, and, 
believing themselves interested in the tranquillity of 
France, would accept and confirm the substitution, 
that though he himself might be forced to abdicate, 
the dynasty which he had established would be 
assured. 

In order to admit the truth of this hypothesis one 
must admit that, from the year 1813, before Liitzen, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 281 

before the first campaign, wherein he constantly 
manifested his confidence in his continued success, 
Napoleon was at heart despairing ; that he had 
latent doubts about Austria, and considered Marie- 
Louise as a pledge of coalition, trusted in the bond 
of paternity, and relied upon the good faith of 
Francis II., the father. 

To divine such a conspiracy as the aristocrats of 
Europe had woven against him, to foresee that the 
young girl who had been given him as wife was the 
lure prepared by the allied oligarchies to entrap 
him, would have required an insight into the depths 
of royal unscrupulousness which even a Talleyrand 
and a Fouche might be incapable of. 

In order to conceive and carry out such a design, 
to coalesce around a nuptial bed the hate of all the 
old dynasties, the profound corruption which is met 
with solely in the highest circles was alone capable ; 
in these circles education and tradition have rendered 
men unscrupulous, they become accustomed to dis- 
regard all laws, human or divine, which militate 
against their interests and to carry their designs 
into execution regardless of the means employed, 
seeing therein no dishonor. In this instance it was 
not a mistress but a wife which had to be furnished 
to encompass their object, and what mattered it if 
the wheels of their triumphant chariot, while crush- 



282 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

ing the impious being who had outraged the sacred 
monarchical system, also rolled over the shuddering 
form and blonde locks of an archduchess. Should 
she survive the ordeal, means should be found to 
console her, should she die — well, it could not be 
helped, for the attainment of such an end somethings 
must be risked and Marie-Louise was only a woman. 
Napoleon never suspected such a despicable con- 
spiracy, never admitted that his wife was the 
accomplice of his enemies ; nor was she, for care 
had been taken to conceal from her the role she was 
destined to play, and she enacted it the better because 
of her innocence. It was not until much later, 
at Saint Helena, that Napoleon traced the continuity 
between his second marriage and the disasters which 
followed it ; even then he did not sound the plot to 
its very depth, either because it displeased him to 
elucidate the principal reason of his downfall, or 
because it pained him to smirch the memory of his 
wife by connecting her with so vile a scheme. He 
frequently remarked : " My marriage was a flower- 
covered pit which they dug for me ; " and instead of 
harboring resentment against this woman who had 
been the cause of his downfall, he showed her more 
affection and greater confidence, as if to console her 
for the pain and disillusion caused by the aggressive- 
ness of her native land and the menacing attitude of 



KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 283 

her father, which he beheved she could not fail to 
regard as treacherous towards her and hers. 

When the campaign of 1812 opened Napoleon 
apparently entertained no doubts of his ultimate 
success, it was his nature to hope even against hope, 
and it was not until much later that he was forced 
to admit the possibility of the enemies entering 
Paris and carrying away the Empress and the 
King of Rome. He believed that theirs would be 
but a brief triumph, for the momentary occupation 
of Paris did not alter his strategic plans, but he 
could not suffer the thought that his wife and son 
should be, even momentarily, hostages in the hands 
of his adversaries, and it was to spare them such an 
insult that he ordered Joseph to abandon Paris, thus 
taking from it its statesmen and resisting elements 
and compromising the entire edifice of his plans, for 
Talleyrand knew how to avoid the injunction to 
loUow the court. His plans had long been laid, he 
had ingratiated himself into the confidence of King 
Joseph, the Empress, the prefecture of the Seine 
and the police ; he had accomplices everywhere 
over whom he exercised a strong and inexplicable 
influence and who seemed bound to him by an 
infernal pact ; and with them he accomplished, 
in 1814, the treason which he began to plot at 
Tilsit in 1807. But the overthrowal of Napoleon's 



284 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

government was but half the task the Prince of 
Benevent had set himself, the whole would be ac- 
complished only when he had succeeded in breaking 
the bonds which he himself had helped to forge 
between Napoleon and Marie-Louise. 

The Emperor believed that whatever misfortunes 
fate might have in store for him he should always 
have the supreme consolation afforded by the 
pleasures of home and the company of his wife and 
son, and that he had not secured a formal promise 
from the Empress to rejoin him at Fontainebleau 
was because he still imagined that her tears might 
move the Emperor Francis and her future con- 
dition be ameliorated. He argued that a certain 
sovereignty would always be hers by right of birth, 
that she would be affectionate to him, who would 
resign himself to the existence of a petty prince, and, 
believing that she had loved in him rather the man 
than the sovereign, thought that there might yet 
be happiness in store for them and for the child 
whose mental and physical development they would 
watch over. 

Marie-Louise was fond of her husband, disposed 
to sympathize with his hopes and plans, and willing 
to rejoin him when the occasion offered, but she was 
surrounded by people whose influence was all in a 
contrary direction, and accustomed from childhood 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 285 

to have others think for her, to be guided and ruled, 
it is not strange that she should have found it hard 
to follow the dictates of her heart and conscience. 
The love which she entertained for Napoleon was 
strong enough to impel her to faithfulness, and it 
was Talleyrand who took upon himself the task 
of blighting it. With this object in view he had 
placed near Marie-Louise a woman who was heart 
and soul in his schemes, who was naturally an in- 
triguant, and who, whenever she had been able to 
introduce herself into a diplomatic project, had 
been quite in her element ; utterly unscrupulous, 
ignoring the virtue of gratitude, she was precisely 
the tool whom he required. As lady-in-waiting this 
woman had ready access to Marie-Louise's ear, and 
when the other ladies abandoned their posts and 
returned to their homes Mme. de Brignole remained 
with the Empress, and, left almost alone with her, 
seized the occasion to obey Talleyrand's instructions 
and to instil the poison of doubt into Marie-Louise's 
mind. Instigated by her master, Mme. de Brignole 
first insinuated, then affirmed, that Napoleon had 
never loved his wife, but had constantly deceived 
her, and when the Empress refused to believe she 
sent for two valets, who had just abandoned their 
sovereign and benefactor at Fontainebleau, and had 
them confirm all her lying tales. 



286 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

There was no one at hand to inspire with courage 
and confidence the irresolute young girl who was 
more wounded by the accounts of her husband's in- 
fidelities than prostrated by the fall of her throne ; 
and as she had once allowed herself to be sacrificed, 
like a modern Iphigenia, so now she acquiesced and 
stood inertly by, while political expedience sundered 
the domestic ties, which it had soldered. This com- 
pliance was not won in a day, for Marie-Louise strug- 
gled nearly a year against overwhelming obstacles, 
every sentiment was brought into play to alienate 
her affection from her husband : pride, jealousy, 
envy, vanity, all were employed, and Bonaparte's 
enemies triumphed only when they had succeeded in 
replacing his image in her heart by that of another, 
when the chaste Emperor of Austria had forced his 
daughter into a position which publicly compromised 
her : then monarchal Europe applauded, and the 
adultress was recompensed by the sovereignty of 
Parma and Placentia. 

Napoleon never dreamt of such abjection ; from 
each of the stopping-places where he rested upon his 
sad journey he wrote a letter to his wife, as formerly 
he had written when she was making her triumphal 
journey towards Paris, greeted by the chiming of 
bells, the cannon's thunder, and the military salute 
of imperial marshals. The defeated Emperor, 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 287 

wending his way across Europe under the watchful 
eyes of the military escort assigned by the allies, with 
the populace's cries of hatred ringing in his ears, 
never forgot his wife ; but of all the letters which he 
wrote but two have been published ; they are ad- 
dressed to ^' My good, my dear Louise." Forgetful 
of his own sufferings he wrote to her of the pain she 
must experience, made tender inquiries regarding 
her health and urged her to be courageous and brave. 
Care had been taken to inform Napoleon that Marie- 
Louise's health rendered it imperative that she should 
take a course of the waters at Aix ; it was a means 
of retarding their reunion and, consciously or not, 
Corvisart had lent his aid to the Emperor's enemies ; 
but of this, as of all the rest. Napoleon was un- 
suspicious, and, rejoicing in Corvisart's devotion, he 
addressed him a letter from Frejus which, if it was 
merited, is the physician's greatest glory, and far 
from opposing the journey to Aix the Emperor en- 
couraged it. He thought that though Marie-Louise 
might not be able to come immediately to Elba, she 
would surely hasten to install herself at Parma, and, 
in order that she should miss none of the accessories 
of rank to which she was accustomed, he dispatched 
a detachment of Polish light horse to that city to 
await her arrival and sent a large supply of carriage 
horses for her use. 



288 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

Hardly had Napoleon reached Porto-Ferrajo than 
he began to arrange the Empress's apartments in the 
palaces destined for his residence, hastening the 
work with the idea that she might arrive at any 
hour. He intended to celebrate her coming with 
fireworks and a grand ball, awaited her arrival to 
make various excursions to points of interest about 
the island, and, although foreign to his nature to 
give public expression to his sentiments, he ordered 
the painter who was decorating the drawing-room 
ceiling to depict there "two pigeons fastened to- 
gether by a slip-knot which tightened as they sep- 
arated." 

It was on Marie-Louise's account that Napoleon 
kept the visit of Mme. Walewska shrouded in 
mystery. She had been to Naples to reclaim from 
Murat the endowment which the Emperor had ac- 
corded her from the property which he had reserved, 
and which Murat had confiscated, and profiting 
from the relaxed surveillance at Porto-Ferrajo she 
had solicited an interview with the Emperor. 

Bonaparte was then installed at the hermitage of 
the Madonna de Marciana which was situated in the 
heart of a forest of aged chestnuts, in whose shade 
the intense heat of the Corsican summer was more 
endurable. The Emperor occupied a small house 
close to the chapel, and the hermits, whom he had 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 289 

not wished to dispossess, were installed in the cellar, 
while for the accommodation of his suite which con- 
sisted of a captain of mounted police, named Paoli- 
Bernotti, an officer of ordinance, several Mamalukes 
and two valets de chambre, Marchand and Saint 
Denis, a large tent had been erected under the 
chestnut trees and close to a little spring which lost 
itself in a carpet of fresh moss besprinkled with 
wild lilies of the valley and violets. Dinner was 
never served at the hermitage, the Emperor descend- 
ing every evening to Marciana and dining with his 
mother, who was installed there. 

On the receipt of Mme. Walewska's letter the 
Emperor at once prepared for her visit, but the 
orders regarding the arrangements for her reception 
were so given that the name of the expected guest 
was kept a profound secret. She disembarked at 
Porto-Ferrajo during the night of September 1st, 
and found awaiting her on the quay a carriage and 
four, and three saddled horses in charge of Bernotti. 
Accompanied by her sister and little son she entered 
the carriage, while her brother, Colonel Laczinski, 
mounted one of the horses, and in the bright moon- 
light they set off for Marciana. The Emperor, ac- 
companied by Paoli and two Mamalukes awaited 
their coming at Procchio, and there Mme. Walewska 

was also obliged to mount one of the horses as it 
19 



290 NAPOLEON", LOVER AND HFSBAND. 

was impossible for the carriage to go further ; Ber- 
notti took charge of the little boy and the party 
finally arrived at the summit of the mountain. Dis- 
mounting before the hermitage the Emperor as- 
sisted Mme. Walewska from her saddle, and, hat in 
hand pointed to the house saying : " Madame, there 
is my palace to which you are heartily welcome ; " 
and abandoning the house to the ladies he himself 
went to sleep in the tent which sheltered his suite 
and servants. 

The close of the night was stormy, and in the 
early morning the Emperor, who had been unable 
to sleep, called Marchand and questioned him as to 
whether any gossip had been caused by the arrival 
of his visitors ; he was informed by the valet that it 
was rumored in Porto-Ferrajo that the mysterious 
lady was none other than the Empress, and the child 
the little King of Eome, and that, moved by this 
rumor. Doctor Foureau had hastened to the hermit- 
age to offer his services and was at that moment 
awaiting the Emperor's command. 

Napoleon dressed and left the tent. The morning 
was bright and beautiful with no trace of the furi- 
ous storm of the previous night, and on the mount- 
ain side in the bright sunshine, the mysterious 
child was playing happily. The Emperor called the 
boy and seating himself in a chair which Marchand 



NAPOLEON", LOVER AND HUSBAND. 291 

brought, took him upon his knee ; he then sent the 
valet in search of Dr. Foureau and when the latter 
appeared said, pointing to the child: "Well, Foureau, 
what do you think of him ?" "Sire," responded the 
Doctor, "the king has grown tremendously," at 
which answer Napoleon laughed heartily, for young 
Walewski was a year older than the King of Eome, 
but his beautiful features and the blond curls which 
fell in profusion over his shoulders caused him to 
resemble his half-brother closely, or rather, to re- 
semble Isabey's popular portrait of the King of 
Rome. 

Napoleon chatted for some moments with the 
physician, then, thanking him for the friendship 
manifested by the prompt offer of his services, dis- 
missed him and turned to greet Mme. Walewska 
whom he espied about leaving the hermitage. 
Breakfast, which had been ordered from Marciaua, 
was served under the chestnut trees ; the meal 
passed off gaily, and the rest of the day was spent 
by the Emperor and Mme. Walewska in walking 
and talking together. 

At dinner the Emperor desired that the boy, of 
whom he had seen but little during the day, should 
sit at his side, and when Mme. Walewska objected 
on the score of the child's boisterous ways he in- 
sisted, saying that he did not mind the child's 



292 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

roguishness, his own childhood having been a tur- 
bulent one. "When they were seated at table the 
Emperor recounted anecdotes of his boyhood telling 
how he used to beat his brother Joseph and force 
him to do his bidding, and how his mother had 
punished him by giving him only dry bread to eat 
— bread which he had given to the shepherd boys 
in exchange for their chestnut bread, or else thrown 
away and gone to his foster-mother's where he was 
fed on the best the house afforded and caressed to 
his heart's content. Young Walewska, who had at 
first been overawed by the presence of so many 
grown people at table and had behaved in most ex- 
emplary manner, was emboldened hy the Emperor's 
stories to give vent to his naturally high spirits, 
whereupon Napoleon said : 

" I see, my lad, that you don't fear the whip. . . . 
well I advise you to ! I never got a beating but 
once, but I've never forgotten it." He then went 
on to relate how Pauline and himself had once made 
sport of their mother and been soundly whipped by 
her in consequence. The boy listened attentively, 
and when the Emperor had finished speaking ex- 
claimed with an air of conviction : ''I shall never 
be whipped for that, I would not make fun of my 
mother," whereupon the Emperor embraced him 
tenderly saying,'^ That was well said." 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 293 

At eight o'clock that evening the visitors returned 
to Ponte-Ferrajo, and re-embarked for Naples ; in 
indemnification for the confiscations of Murat, Mme. 
Walewska carried with her a draft on the Emperor's 
treasurer for sixty-one thousand francs. It is said 
that her stay at Naples was so prolonged, that 
March of 1815 still found her there. 

In spite of all the precautions taken to keep Mme. 
Walewska's visit to Elba a secret, it became known, 
for there were too many people interested in the 
Emperor's movements, too many spies about him, to 
keep such a visit from being talked of. The islanders 
insisted that the mysterious lady was Marie-Louise, 
but the English and Bourbon spies were better in- 
formed, and their employers believed that this visit 
heralded the renewal of the Emperor's relations with 
the Polish woman. In reality, Mme. Walewska's 
journey to Elba was actuated rather by friendship 
and sympathy than by love, and the presence of her 
sister. Mile. Laczinska, at the Hermitage, proves 
that the visit was a conventional one. 

If Napoleon had any love-affair while at Elba, it 
certainly was not with the so-called Countess de 
Rohan, who was but a vulgar adventuress, and 
went to the island to reclaim no one knows what, 
from the Emperor, and to offer him her company in 
his exile, but rather with a woman who has been 



294 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

much less discussed ; the same whom he had received 
several times in his apartments in the orangery, 
at Saint-Cloud, and who, unsolicited, repaired to 
Ponte-Ferrajo. Whether this lady was married 
to Colonel B * -^ * * when she went to Elba, or mar- 
ried him there is not known, but, wed or not, her 
devotion to the fallen Emperor was great, and it is 
unfortunate that so little is known regarding the 
details of her life. What we do know is, that, not 
content with having followed Napoleon to Elba, she 
went to Rambouillet in 1815 and besought his per- 
mission to follow him to St. Helena, that she was 
heart-broken at his refusal, and that with three 
thousand francs which were given her, she went to 
the United States, where she hoped to find him. 

Little attention seems to have been attracted by 
Napoleon's intimacy with this woman, while certain 
letters, written by a miserable priest in the pay of 
the Duke de Blacas, have been republished period- 
ically ; these letters were written with the view of 
accrediting calumnious reports which were then 
afloat, and it is needless to dwell upon them here. 

While at Elba, Napoleon passed through a moral 
and political crisis which rendered the greatest re- 
serve obligatory ; he knew that the slightest indis- 
cretion would be related to Marie-Louise, and en- 
larged upon by his enemies who surrounded her, 



NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 295 

and that she would be deeply wounded thereby. 
He had sent Captain Hurault de Sorbee, the husband 
of one of her ladies, to Aix-les-Bains, with instruc- 
tions to essay to speak with the Empress, and deliver 
his messages in person, and had received news which 
led him to hope that a regular correspondence would 
soon be established between them ; thus it was 
scarcely the moment to become entangled in a 
scandalous intrigue. Time passed, the month of 
September dragged its weary length along without 
bringing the Emperor a word from his wife or son, 
and at length, worn out by anxiety and unfulfilled 
hope, he determined to write to the Duke of Tuscany, 
upon whose friendship he still relied and whom he 
had designated to his wife as their natural inter- 
mediary. The letter he sent the duke was not sup- 
plicatory, from the manner in which he addressed, 
as " My dear brother and uncle ; " it is evident that 
Napoleon remembered the favors his highness had 
received at his hands, and believed that the one-time 
parasite of Compiegne must also bear them in mind. 
" Having received no news of my wife since August 
10th, nor of my son in six months," he writes, "I 
beg your royal highness to inform me if you will 
permit me to send weekly letters to my wife in your 
care, whether you will undertake 'to keep me in- 
formed regarding her health, etc., and to forward 



296 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

letters from my son's governess, Mme. de Montes- 
quiou. I flatter myself that, in spite of the events 
which have changed so many persons, your high- 
ness still entertains some friendship for me ; if you 
assure me of this by granting my request, it will be 
a great consolation and comfort, and, in that case, 
I beg your highness to show yourself favorably 
disposed towards this little canton which shares the 
loyal sentiments of Tuscany for your person. I 
trust your highness does not doubt the sincerity of 
the sentiments I have always expressed, nor my 
esteem and regard •. and I beg to be kindly remem- 
bered to your highness's children." 

It was simply a question of a friendly service to be 
rendered one who confessed himself unhappy and 
admitted himself defeated, and who, to soften the 
prince's heart, almost avowed himself his subject, 
yet it was not a supplication, and the old equality, 
nay, superiority of rank, pierces through the care- 
fully-worded lines. There was no answer to this 
letter, for the drama was ended, the imperial house 
of Austria had succeeded in dishonoring its daughter, 
and the Empress of France had fallen so low as to 
become the mistress of her own chamberlain. 

After such a letter, written to such a man. Napo- 
leon would not take any further action ; his wife 
and child had been stolen from him, the Bourbons 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 297 

no longer paid the annual sum stipulated for at 
Fontainebleau, and he saw that he should be forced 
to disband his guard, and, unable to offer even a 
semblance of resistance, be killed with his faithful 
followers, should the allied sovereigns order his 
transportation to some remote island, the Azores 
for example, as Talleyrand had suggested on the 
13th of October, because, as he then said : "They 
were five hundred miles from any land." 

The Emperor foresaw that he must either submit 
to being transported by the sovereigns, or assas- 
sinated by the bandits in Brulart's pay ; and prefer- 
ring to make a supreme effort and risk all for 
France, determined upon his return. 



298 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

THE HUNDRED DAYS. 

On New Year's day, 1815, Napoleon had received a 
letter from the Empress, giving him news of their 
son, telling what a handsome and charming child 
he was, and that he would soon be able to write him- 
self to his father. It is impossible to say why this 
letter was written, possibly it was prompted by re- 
morse, but whatever actuated Marie-Louise it served 
to strengthen the tie between herself and Napoleon, 
and confirmed his conviction that she had never 
abandoned the intention of rejoining him, that her 
silence was compulsory, and that, were she free to 
do so, she would hasten to his side. 

He was convinced that, had he a throne to offer, 
Marie-Louise's jailors would set her at liberty, and 
as soon as he felt assured of the success of his enter- 
prise he hastened to inform her, writing from Lyons 
on the 12th of March. Marie-Louise, however, did 
with this letter, as she had done with all those she 
had received from Elba, handed it over to her father 



NAPOLEON, LOYEE AND HUSBAND. 299 

who communicated its contents to the alHed pleni- 
potentiaries, and Napoleon received no answer. 

Immediately upon re-entering Paris the Emperor 
ordered that the Empress's apartments should be put 
in order and re-established her household upon its 
old footing. Ten days later, upon the 1st of April, he 
wrote an official letter to the Austrian Emperor 
wherein he reclaimed the " objects of my tenderest 
affection, my wife and son." "As," he wrote, 
" the long separation necessitated by circumstances 
has caused me the greatest sorrow I have ever ex- 
perienced, I desire that my wife and child be speedily 
restored to me, and am assured that our reunion is 
as earnestly desired by the virtuous princess, whose 
destiny Your Majesty united with mine, as by my- 
self ; " and he terminated the letter by saying : " I 
know too well Your Majesty's principles and the 
value Your Highness places upon family- ties not to 
feel assured that, despite the disposition of your 
cabinet, or questions of political expediency. Your 
Majesty will accelerate the reunion of a wife with 
her husband, a son with his father." 

Like the others this letter remained unanswered, 
and the obstinate silence, opposed alike to official and 
family letters, confirmed Napoleon's belief that it 
was the political attitude of the house of Austria 
and the pressure brought to bear upon her which 



300 NAPOLEON, LOVEPv AND HUSBAND. 

paralyzed the natural desire of his wife and pre- 
vented her rejoining him, he therefore determined 
to employ secret means for communicating with her. 
With this object he sent to Vienna carefully chosen 
messengers, Flahaut and Montrond, men who could 
be trusted and who possessed facilities for approach- 
ing Marie-Louise. Montrond alone pierced the lines, 
but when he was about to give to the Empress the 
letter of which he was the bearer, Meneval inter- 
posed. The ci-devant secretary of Napoleon, who 
had become, in 1813, the Empress's secretary and had 
followed her to Austria, understood only too well 
the relations existing between his royal mistress and 
Count Neipperg, and he felt that in burning the 
Emperor's tender letter which he had written to his 
wife, he was rendering him a service. Nevertheless, 
Meneval dared not write directly to Napoleon in- 
forming him of the real state of affairs, for he real- 
ized what a terrible blow it would be to his master, 
and he therefore determined to inform one in whose 
unwavering fidelity he had implicit confidence of 
the liaison, and wrote an anonymous letter to La- 
vallette ; Count de Lavallette, however, saw in this 
anonymous communication only a political machina- 
tion, and it is not strange that Napoleon shared hi? 
views. 
They were soon to be enlightened, however, for 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AISTD HUSBAND. 301 

Ballouhey, secretary of expenses for the two Em- 
presses and a man whose fidelity and honesty were 
unquestionable, was en route from Vienna by way 
of Munich, where he was to receive some instruc- 
tions from Prince Eugene. The Emperor was so 
impatient to see Ballouhey that he ordered his arrival 
at Belfort to be telegraphed him, and stationed an 
orderly at his house in Paris with instructions to 
conduct the secretary to the Elysee the instant he 
appeared. 

Ballouhey reached Paris on the 28th of April and 
was closeted for two hours with the Emperor, but, 
though Napoleon received a clear and concise state- 
ment of Prince Eugene's ideas of the political situa- 
tion, he failed to obtain definite information upon 
the subject nearest his heart. Ballouhey was a 
scrupulously exact accountant ; he had been deeply 
attached both to Josephine and Marie-Louise ; but he 
was a timorous man and dared not affirm the truth 
of the scandalous liaison which was an open secret 
in Vienna. 

Meneval, expelled from Vienna, arrived a fort- 
night later, and from him the whole truth was 
learned. On taking leave of the Empress she had 
charged him to say to his imperial master "that, 
while she would take no step towards securing a 
divorce, she believed he would offer no objection to 



302 NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

an amicable separation." '' Such a separation," she 
said, ''was indispensable, but it would not impair 
the sentiments of esteem and gratitude which she en- 
tertained for him," and she added that " her decision 
to remain apart from Napoleon was irrevocable, and 
not even her father had the right to oblige her to 
return to France." It was Marie-Louise who, put- 
ting herself under the protection of the allied pleni- 
potentiaries in an official letter dated March 12th, 
provoked the furious declaration which was signed 
by them on the 13th, and in recompense for her act 
Count Neipperg was created court chamberlain ; and 
it was with her consent that, on the 18th of March, 
the little King of Eome was separated from his gov- 
erness, Mme. de Montesquieu, and deprived of all his 
French servants. 

Undoubtedly, Meneval added other, and more 
private details, for it was no longer right to conceal 
the monstrous truth ; possibly Marie-Louise was 
then in the early stages of one of those pregnancies 
which were to people the avenues of Burg with 
adulterous bastards, entitled princes and highnesses 
to the everlasting shame of the royal house of 
Austria. 

"When, after the birth of the King of Eome, 
Dubois, the accoucheur, affirmed that a second 
child would imperil Marie-Louise's life, Napoleon, 



NAPOLEOlSr, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 303 

despite his desire for numerous offspring and a 
second son to sit on the throne of Italy, had bowed 
to the physician's decision : M. de Neipperg had no 
such scruples and proved repeatedly that Baron 
Dubois had been mistaken. Although the Emperor 
could no longer doubt the unfaithfulness of Marie- 
Louise, it was necessary to keep the truth from the 
nation and essential that the people should conserve 
their illusions regarding their Empress ; twelve 
months previous he considered that nothing would 
appeal more to the people than the thought of that 
woman and child confided to France ; to-day the 
captivity in which they were held, the separation 
which violated all laws, human and divine, the 
attempted violation of conjugal faith and paternal 
love committed by the sovereigns in arms for the 
re-establishment in France of a government like 
their own, seemed to him of a nature to appeal to 
every generous and honest instinct in the heart of 
men and patriots. The grief which the Empress 
felt when she was torn from the post which it was 
her duty to fill, the thirty sleepless nights which 
she had passed in 1814, the real imprisonment to 
which she had been subjected, the treaty of Fon- 
tainebleau, violated by the kings who had torn 
from him his wife and son, the indignant cry of the 
old Queen Marie-Caroline to her granddaughter ? 



304 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

" Since you are prohibited from going out by the 
door, escape by the window and fly to rejoin your 
husband," the King of Eome — then called the Prince 
Imperial — separated from his mother, Mme. de 
Montesquiou driven away and trembling for her 
pupil's life, the Emperor wished Meneval to recount 
it all and ordered a report to be prepared in case 
the Chamber made a motion for the King of Rome. 
The Chamber ! 

Not once during the hundred days, not once during 
the six years of agony at Saint Helena, did a word 
of censure or bitterness against Marie-Louise escape 
him ; he invariably spoke of her with affection and 
kindly pity ; he thought of her only as she was when 
she first came to France, young, fresh, loyal and 
unsullied ; there is not one of his companions in 
captivity who has not reported his conversations 
regarding her almost in the same terms. If a 
Europegtn ship dropped anchor in Jamestown Bay 
Napoleon was sure that he was about to receive a 
letter from the Empress, and nervous, anxious and 
unable to work, would pass the whole day in expect- 
ancy; when one of his servants was taken from 
him his first thought was to send a letter by that 
sure hand to Marie-Louise, as for example the one 
he confided to his surgeon in which he said : '' Should 
the bearer of this see you, my good Louise, I beg 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 305 

of you to permit him to kiss your hands." In his 
will, which was dated the 5th of April, 1821, he 
wrote this phrase : "I never have had any fault to 
find with my dear wife, the Empress Marie-Louise ; 
to my last moment I shall retain for her the most 
tender sentiments, and I beg her to watch over my 
son and guard against the dangers which still sur- 
round his childhood ; " and, as if this was not enough, 
he bequeathed to her from the modest wardrobe 
which now constituted his sole fortune, all his laces, 
and on the 28th of April, a week before his death, 
he instructed Antommarchi to take his heart from 
his body and send it to her. ' ' Preserve my heart 
in alcohol," he said to the physician, " and take it 
yourself to Parma to my dear Marie-Louise ; tell her 
that I love her tenderly and have never ceased to 
love her, recount to her all that you have seen, all 
that touches my situation and my death." 

Truly Hudson Lowe did well in obliging Antom- 
marchi to place the silver vase which contained 
Napoleon's heart in his coffin : What would Count 
Neipperg have done with it ? 

In default of the perfidious Austrian, many other 

women, from France, Ireland and Poland surrounded 

the Emperor during the last glorious days of his 

short reign of three months, encouraging his spirit 

by their enthusiasm and devotion, pleasing his eye 
20 



306 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

by their beauty ; while even those who were least 
fitted for political intrigues became his spies and 
informants, and by instinct rather than reason, 
frequently gave counsel which might well have 
been followed ; for example, George regarding 
Fouche ; Mme. Pellapra who hastened to return to 
Paris from Lyons and warned him of the Duke 
d'Otrante's intentions, and Mme. Walewska, who, 
hastily returning from Naples, was immediately 
received with her son at the Elysee, brought 
messages from Murat. Mme. * * * * was among 
the first to present herself to the Emperor, and as- 
suming her title and rank as lady of the palace, 
was among the faithful ones of the 20th of March, 
and among those who, in the brilliantly illuminated 
salon of the Tuileries, impatiently awaited the ar- 
rival of the exile of Elba. There were many others, 
Mme. Diilauloy, Mme. Lavallette, Mme. Ney, Mme. 
Eegnauld de Saint-Jean-d' Angely, Mme. de Beauvau 
and Mme. de Turenne, all of whom vied with each 
other in the endeavor to encourage and please him. 
At that time there breathed upon these women of 
France that divine afflatus which creates heroines 
and martyrs, inspires acts of supreme devotion and 
courage, and strengthens souls to face courageously 
the severest trials. 

During that sinister period, which is justly called, 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 807 

"the White Terror," a period of atrocities which 
to-day we vainly seek to palliate, the women of the 
Empire manifested, amidst the universal cowardli- 
ness of mankind, a courage, energy and presence 
of mind which immortalizes them ; at the Tuileries 
during the hundred days, at Malmaison and after 
Waterloo, they proved how well they knew how to 
show their loyalty and honor misfortune. 

It was not alone the well known and the cele- 
brated, but the humble and the obscure who showed 
their devotion ; as, for example, a woman, who, at 
the review of the confederation, approached the 
Emperor and handed him a petition, a roll of paper 
carefully fastened, from which, when it was opened, 
there fell twenty-five bank notes of a thousand 
francs each ; and another who, on the 23d of June, 
the eve of the day upon which Napoleon was to 
leave the Elysee for Malmaison, wrote to his valet 
de chambre, requesting him to meet her at the 
church of Saint-Philippe du Roule to receive an 
important communication. Marchand went to the 
rendezvous, and found at the place indicated a 
woman engaged in prayer ; she was veiled, but not 
heavily enough to hide her features, which were 
exceptionally beautiful ; Marchand approached and 
asked in what way he could serve her. The mysteri- 
ous lady hesitated for a moment, then, with extreme 



308 NAPOLEOK, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 

embarrassment, replied that the misfortunes of the 
Emperor had touched her deeply, that she wished 
to see, to console and love him. Napoleon, on hear- 
ing of her desire, smiled and said : " Hers is an ad- 
miration which might lead to an intrigue ; it must 
not be encouraged," but the naive offer of this 
heart, coming on such a day and at such an hour, 
touched him profoundly, and later, upon several 
occasions, he spoke of the mysterious lady of Saint- 
Philippe du Roule. 

Did he find in captivity some woman who gave to 
him the consolation which only a tender woman can 
give to a man ? We know about his childish romps 
with Miss Elizabeth Balcombe, during her sojourn 
at Briars ; and we divine a familiarity with a 
woman whose conduct during the Empire would 
seemingly have forbidden her to approach him, and 
who, twice divorced, dismissed from court, had, by 
the simple fact of his marriage, brought disgrace 
upon her third husband. But if the testamentary 
liberality which the Emperor showed this person 
gives some weight to the reports of the foreign 
Commissioners, if her presence really occasioned 
discord among the Emperor's companions, and her 
departure was one of the painful experiences which 
he was obliged to live through, one yet knows too 
little regarding this portion of the drama of Saint 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 309 

Helena to expatiate upon it ; the woman plied her 
role upon the island ; that is all that one can say. 

Side by side with this retired courtesan, whom 
interest had taken to Eochefort, and whom interest 
retained at Saint Helena, we find another woman, 
who is really worthy of admiration. By birth and 
by her relationship with the Fitz-James family. 
Countess Bertrand was entitled to one of the best 
positions at Court, and, had she remained in Paris, 
would doubtless have been one of the leaders of 
society, but she voluntarily shared her husband's 
devotion to his chief and followed him into exile ; 
she lived in a cabin infested with rats, within reach 
of the Emperor, but unable to succor or amuse him. 
She remained until the end, compassionate, sensible 
and dignified, guarding her honor like a Eoman 
matron, and like a statue of grief she followed the 
procession which conducted the captive conqueror 
to his grave in the valley of Geranium, and she, an 
Englishwoman by birth, was the only woman who 
wept over the remains of him whom her country- 
m.en had murdered. 



310 -NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SUMMARY. 

The sum of the preceding chapters only signified 
that Napoleon was subject to the same desires, pas- 
sions and weaknesses as other men, and had taken 
no vows of continence ; that the amorous side of his 
nature was twofold, on one side the physical alone 
reigned, on the other physical and moral united . . . 
the moral being in the ascendant. 

We have hidden none of the adventures wherein 
the animal part of his nature alone predominated ; 
not because one can glean from them a special in- 
sight into his character, but because to hide them 
would give rise to the suspicion that they were 
wholly unfavorable to his general character. Be- 
cause he was Napoleon all that he did was known, 
and no matter how carefully he hid his amorous 
intrigues they were sure to be discovered ; ladies-in- 
waiting and ladies'-maids, aides-de-camp and valets 
were ceaselessly on the watch, and no matter how 
insignificant the events which transpired they were 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 811 

all carefully noted. Everybody at the Tuileries 
lived in the governmental zone, whether they were 
soliciting favors or hunting for news, and all took 
a lively interest in the doings of the Emperor, and 
each made a note of any incident which came under 
his observation. As everything, Napoleon did, has 
an historical interest, as his lightest words, slightest 
actions, even the trifling ailments which from time 
to time afflicted him, have been of interest to the 
public for a hundred years, and as many erroneous 
tales have been accredited, the sole course for the 
author of this book to pursue is to establish facts, 
and relate such adventures as are authenticated by 
the according narrations of various reliable persons ; 
if any have been omitted, or simply referred to, it is 
because they have been related by but one chronicler 
and it has been impossible to discover documentary 
proof of their authenticity, or sometimes because 
they were of so commonplace a nature as to render 
it useless to dwell upon them. 

There were women always ready to gratify his 
desires, whether expressed by himself or made 
known by his messengers ; he accepted their will- 
ingly-given caresses, sometimes from physical ne- 
cessity, sometimes from voluptuousness ; but he 
never experienced mental exhaustion or fatigue 
from his adventures, nor did any woman distract 



312 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

him from his work ; of all these woraen none was 
seduced by him, for if there was a virgin among 
their number she was one who trafficked on her 
virtue. 

In order to judge the men of the Empire, above 
all, Napoleon, by the narrow and hypocritical stand- 
ard of contemporaneous times one must place them 
in similar environments ; their lives were not the 
humdrum, monotonous lives of the modern business 
man, they were always in the saddle, death on the 
crupper, galloping from one end of Europe to the 
other amidst a rain of bullets, and if some of them, 
unknown to the Emperor, trailed their mistresses 
after them, the majority gave little thought to the 
senses and remained chaste during the campaigns. 

If, on their return from a long war, or when a 
city was conquered and there was a lull in the strife, 
brute passion gained the mastery, does it signify 
that they were the most debauched of mankind ? 
To have followed the calling which they selected 
from preference and clung to from ambition must 
they not have been, by origin and nature, stronger, 
more brutal, more like the primitive man, than the 
men of this generation ? Did not their profession 
develop, accentuate and foster all that was savage, 
combative and animal in their natures ? Had they 
not the same tastes, desires and appetites as other 



\ NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 313 

men ? Was it to be expected that they would 
remain scrupulously faithful to wives whom they 
rarely saw ? 

Some few, indeed, were faithful, and there are 
admirable examples of fidelity, tenderness and 
delicacy given by those men of war, but for the 
majority the distractions of the camp and garrison 
intrigues were the rule, and they placed no impor- 
tance upon them. 

Side by side with these animal appetites they 
entertained ingenuously sentimental ideas of con- 
jugal tenderness, and nothing was too good or too 
precious for the wife who had almost invariably 
been married for love and from the most disinter- 
ested motives ; to satisfy her tastes they pillaged 
Europe, throwing their spoils at her feet ; to content 
her caprices and ambitions they deployed an amount 
of patience and diplomacy which would make one 
smile were it not so touching. 

In generosity, in the care for his wife, in letters, 
presents, and in the wealth showered upon her. 
Napoleon was not outdone by any of his warriors, 
but his sentimentalism was of another origin and 
essence than theirs. 

The soldiers of the Empire, who had neither by 
nature nor by education any scruples, fabricated a 
code of honor for themselves, and although they 



314 KAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

fondly believed the sword had made them the equals 
of the men of gentle birth whose places they had 
usurped, and whom they hated, their " soldier's 
code" differed in many respects from that attri- 
buted by Montesquieu to gentlemen ; but in their 
days they could hardly search for the rules regulat- 
ing that code of honor, and they did not care to take 
a Lauzun or a Tilly for their model ; they still de- 
tested those whom they had replaced, and if they 
laid claim to the title of ''gentlemen" it was be- 
cause they considered themselves the equals of 
men of noble ancestry. 

From 1806 everything in France was modeled on 
the troubadour style, novels, historical works, pict- 
ures, dress and drama, but it was less a question of 
the troubadour himself, than of him of whom he sang; 
the knight who professed the adoration of his lady, 
who for his exploits in the Holy Land received a 
scarf embroidered by her fair hands and considered 
his deeds of valor well rewarded by a glance from her 
dear eyes. The warriors of the Empire made every 
effort to model themselves after these ideal cheva- 
liers, and though they did not gird themselves with 
the fair one's colors, many a man wore a sword-knot 
embroidered by her, or wore the beloved one's por- 
trait over his heart, and decorated himself with 
some bauble of her giving upon state occasions. 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAm). 315 

Napoleon yielded less to this current than his fol- 
lowers, than Prince Eugene and certain of his mar- 
shals, but the ambient atmosphere finally affected 
him also, as certain incidents in his relations with 
Marie-Louise prove conclusively ; but it was not, 
however, until the close of the Empire that a senti- 
ment, until then unexperienced, awoke in him and 
effaced all others. 

Up to that time Napoleon's sentimentalism was 
in no degree influenced by the literature of the time, 
but greatly by that of a previous era. Eousseau had 
influenced him, as his letters to Josephine, Mme. 
* * * * and Mme. Walewska show ; in all of them may 
be found the same tone, the identical expressions 
and words which were used by the young Lieutenant 
Bonaparte when from Valence he complained of his 
loneliness and poverty. 

A pupil of Jean-Jacques, Napoleon was so thor- 
oughly impregnated with the ideas of his master, 
that he, who had striven for and obtained, even 
the impossible, in the order of events, encountered 
only impotence, negation and disgust in the range 
of sentiments. In Napoleon's continual search for 
a woman who would love him for himself, whose 
only thought would be for him, who would live but 
for him, and with whom he could dwell in a constant 
interchange of tenderness, he certainly acted in good 



316 NAPOLEOl^, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

faith ; but who can tell up to what point he was in- 
fluenced by his literary souvenirs, or how much he 
forced himself in the effort to experience sensations 
which he believed to be rare and strange. 

That which gives us reason to think that he forced 
his nature is that he soon wearied ; he received less 
pleasure than he anticipated in the society of the 
woman he wooed, and the real woman seemed invari- 
ably inferior to the ideal creature of his imagination ; 
the sentimentalism which was cultivated found itself 
in opposition to the positivism which was natural, 
and he ruptured the much-sought-f or relations ; but 
only to run in search of a new sensation, a fresh 
experience, as soon as the occasion offered. 

In such a man his fidelity, not of the senses, but 
of the heart, is surprising ; he had mistresses whom 
he loved sincerely, and he divorced Josephine, yet 
she held a place apart in his heart and he ever felt 
a deep and tender affection for her, an affection so 
strong that he pardoned all her faults and the 
wrongs she had done him ; nay, more, he forgot 
them. 

Josephine's life, of which he did not fail to keep 
himself informed, must have revolted him, but he 
shut his eyes to it, and remembered only that the 
woman whom he had raised to be the first lady in 
France, who was associated with his destiny, was 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 817 

grace itself and elegance personified ; he endowed 
her with all the virtues and graces which a passion- 
ate lover showers upon his mistress, and, although 
he reproached her for her prodigality, he proved his 
affection by giving her the means to gratify all her 
desires. 

To the end of his days Napoleon ignored the true 
Josephine, and threw over the love of his youth a 
halo of imaginary charms and virtues which has 
immortalized her ; if he thus deceived posterity it 
was because he was himself deceived, and to the very 
end he persisted in the illusions, holding before his 
eyes, in his heart and senses, at Saint Helena, the 
Josephine whom he had seen for the first time in 
the rue Chantereine, the woman in whose arms ha 
first tasted the sweets of love. 

Napoleon's love for Josephine was such as a man 
gives to his mistress, a love without respect, which 
puts no restraint upon itself, exacts instant satis- 
faction and does not fear disagreements ; which vol- 
untarily confesses its infidelities and relates risquee 
anecdotes ; that such was Napoleon's affection for 
Josephine is proved by the fact that at each evolu- 
tion of his destiny he realized more forcibly that his 
interests demanded he should break with her and 
rupture the union which was not a marriage in his 
eyes because it had not for eight years been sane- 



318 KAPOLEON, LOYEE AND HUSBAND. 

tioned by the Church, and because^ when it did re- 
ceive the Church's blessing, he had appeared before 
the priest by force. Had Josephine given him a 
child he would have considered the contract valid, 
but, being childless, he considered himself free, and 
when he separated himself from her he treated her 
like a mistress, consoling her by large sums of 
money and arranging for her existence in an opulent 
style. 

One may question whether, in spite of the weak- 
ness Napoleon had for Josephine, despite his shower- 
ing favors and presents upon her, adopting her 
children and elevating her relatives to posts of honor, 
Napoleon ever regarded her as of his family ; so 
great was the difference between the sentiments he 
entertained for her and those inspired by Marie- 
Louise, particularly after Marie-Louise had borne 
him a child. Then the conjugal spirit took posses- 
sion of and dominated him ; undoubtedly he never 
gave her the passionate love he had bestowed upon 
his first wife, but he entertained for Marie-Louise a 
respect which he never gave to Josephine. While 
he had invariably refused all participation in affairs 
of state to his first wife he voluntarily accorded it to 
the second, discovering in her greater intelligence 
than he accorded to his oldest councillors or even to 
his brothers. With Josephine the sentimental side 



NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 319 

of his nature as developed by Eousseau was domi- 
nant, while with Marie-Louise his Corsican atavism 
and the traditions of his native mountains resumed 
their supremacy : Marie-Louise was sanctified in his 
view by her motherhood. 

Napoleon would never admit that his wife had 
abandoned him and deceived him ; she was his wife, 
the mother of his son, and that placed her above the 
temptations and weakness common to her sex. So 
dominant was the conjugal spirit in him that, to the 
hour of his death, he ignored her treachery, and that 
he, who was so jealous of the woman he had once 
possessed that he complained bitterly of Mme. Wale w- 
ska's marriage, never uttered a complaint against 
his wife. Was his silence occasioned by the desire 
of securing for her the respect which a monarchal 
lord requires paid to crowned heads, did it make him 
happier to ignore her faults, did he find excuses for 
them in the extraordinary circumstances surround- 
ing her, or did he hope that the secret he refused to 
reveal would be better guarded by history ? Possibly 
he was actuated by all these motives, but his pre- 
dominant thought was, that she was his wife, and 
therefore could not fall. 

Thus, separating the purely sensual liaisons^ which 
were brief, from the deep attachments of his life, we 
find in Napoleon as great a faculty for love as for 



320 KAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

thought and action, and are obliged to admit that 
he was as astonishing a husband as he was a war- 
rior and a statesman. 

There remains but one point to be considered, 
whether any of the women with whom Napoleon was 
closely related ever swayed him sufficiently to affect 
his political views and moves ; it does not appear 
that any woman, either wife or mistress, directly in- 
fluenced him, but doubtless the impressions received 
from both, the ideas they advanced and the circum- 
stances accompanying certain of his liaisons gave 
rise to new ideas in his brain and modified old ones. 

Dearly loved as Josephine was, she was not among 
those who were the primary cause of certain politi- 
cal moves. It has been affirmed that it was her in- 
fluence which surrounded him with people of noble 
birth and led him, at times, to sacrifice the spirit of 
the revolution to the traditions of the old regime, 
but that is an error ; Josephine sought to draw the 
old nobility round Napoleon by his order, and it was 
at his command that she protected them. An in- 
sight into the various gradations of society under the 
old regime, some false impressions, some informa- 
tion, much of which was inexact, was about all he 
gleaned from her. The birth of a son to Mile. Denu- 
elle de la Plaegne doubtless first determined him to 
divorce Josephine, and that of Mme. Walewska's 



NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 821 

cemented his resolution, while his political attitude 
towards Poland is explained if one remembers who 
was his mistress and close companion from 1807 to 
1809, even his long friendship for Bernadotte be- 
comes comprehensible when one recalls his tender- 
ness for Desiree. 

When Napoleon married Marie-Louise and became, 
through her, a member of the house of Austria, he 
believed the relationship so formed was close and 
binding, as the tie which bound him to his own 
family, and his faith in the Austrian Emperor's 
friendship, his confidence in his wife's fidelity and 
discretion is due to his belief in the strength and in- 
destructibility of ties of blood and his conviction 
that they alone rendered a political alliance invio- 
late. Marie-Louise, not because she was unusually 
intelligent, but because of the role she played in his 
political combinations and the prestige of her mother- 
hood, exercised an unprecedented infiuence over him. 
Napoleon set a high value upon ties of blood and the 
obligations entailed by kinship ; he was a true Cor- 
sican in the strength of his attachment and his ad- 
herence to family, and it appears as if the very value 
he placed upon the ties which should be the strongest 
and most sacred to humanity caused his fall. 

If women had played no role in his life, Napoleon 
would cease to be the amazing example of mascu- 

lO 



322 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 

line genius that he is, and would become a sexless 
being without interest to humanity because not sub- 
ject to the failings and passions of other men, unin- 
fluenced by the traditions which sway them, pos- 
sessed of no sentiment common to mankind. As it 
was, this man, whose genius was astounding, who, 
served by an unparalleled fortune, accomplished the 
greatest task that mortal ever undertook, was pre- 
cisely the man to whom no emotion was a stranger. 
It is human to be influenced by, to believe in and 
to love woman, to experience by her and for her all 
the sensations and emotions which she inspires, and 
in that respect, as in all others, Napoleon was superior 
to mankind. 

THE END. 



